AFP, Madrid :
Real Madrid’s best player for the last three months is 35 years old and out of contract in the summer.
Luka Modric has perhaps been Real Madrid’s best player this season, as well as being voted player of the month by the club’s fans for November, December and January. He could deservedly win February too.
Nobody in Zinedine Zidane’s squad is older and yet only four have played more minutes in 2020/21, one of them goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois.
Modric is joint third top scorer at the club and fifth for assists, even though by his own admission his contribution is never truly reflected by those measurements.
Compare Modric, for example, to Frenkie de Jong at Barcelona, another playmaking midfielder, who is 12 years younger and having an excellent season himself.
Modric has dribbled more than De Jong, been fouled more, intercepted more, taken more shots, blocked more shots, and scored the same number of goals.
“I have the same desire to play, to compete for my place, and I really want to show that age is not a problem,” said Modric in a press conference last month.
“What is important is how you play on the pitch and hopefully I can stay at this level for many years.”
Modric’s contract expires at the end of June and while reports in December claimed a one-year deal has been broadly agreed, three months on nothing is official.
If the contract is allowed to expire, there would be no shortage of teams interested, including some of Europe’s biggest and best.
“He’s exceptional,” Zidane said in December.
Real Madrid play at Real Valladolid on Saturday, hoping to reduce the gap behind Atletico, who are at home to Levante. Barcelona, in third, host Cadiz on Sunday.