GdS: Present centrality, enigmatic future – what’s inside Modric’s mind

There has been a lot of recent speculation about Luka Modric’s future, but it seems there is no hurry for it to be resolved.

La Gazzetta dello Sport ask the question: what will become of Luka Modric? Modric has become one of the leaders of Milan, a role he took up after just days with the club, but his contract expires in a few months and there are doubts about what will happen beyond the World Cup.

Central role

Despite a bit of a natural decline in recent games due to his work rate, Modric remains the hallmark of this Milan side, which has risen from the ashes of last season.

In purely on-field terms, he has played the third-most minutes in the league (1,754 minutes, behind Saelemaekers and Gabbia), and the fifth-most in general. In Milan’s 26 matches, he has only sat out the entire ninety minutes on two occasions.

As is evident even to the most casual observers, there is a Milan with Modric and a Milan without. Even when Luka is less visible, his timing and enormous work out of possession are crucial to the team’s balance.

This is why more than a few are already beginning to wonder – with understandable alarm – what Milan might look like without Modric, and not just for one game.

Photo by Marco Luzzani/Getty Images

What the future holds

The real and concrete premise is that Luka hasn’t yet decided what to do next season. It depends on how this season ends, of course, on how the World Cup goes, and on the scenario that best suits him in the summer.

He’ll decide based on his needs as a man and a very mature footballer, as Giroud did. There are many variables, while the Milan management are looking at some potential replacements in case they need to act, like Leon Goretzka.

The German could arrive and Luka could stay, though. Contractually, the club have an option to extend Modric’s deal by another season, but it’s clear to everyone that in this case the player will be the one to decide.

In this sense, his post-match comments against Roma had a certain impact. They were blunt, unequivocal and uttered by someone who can afford to say even uncomfortable things: “Maignan saved us. We started the first ten minutes well, but then Roma dominated.”

Now, Allegri didn’t say that, at least not this bluntly. That Milan aren’t Real Madrid was evidently clear to him from the moment he chose the Rossoneri, now he will need to decide if he wants another year of what he has had so far.