# How Many Ways Can You Rank Luka Modrić?
> One midfielder, fourteen rankings — from worst La Liga signing to Ballon d'Or winner. How Luka Modrić's place changes with every question you ask.
*By YPB Team · Published July 23, 2026 · https://youpick.best/articles/how-many-ways-to-rank-luka-modric*
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Luka Modrić at the 2026 World Cup — one midfielder, fourteen very different rankings. Photo: Bryan Berlin, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Luka Modrić was voted the worst signing in La Liga in 2013 and the best footballer on the planet in 2018. He was rejected by Hajduk Split for being too small, then won six Champions Leagues. He just started every Croatia game at the 2026 World Cup at 40, and the reports out of Milan say one more season is coming. Below, the same career runs through fourteen rankings — sometimes near the top, sometimes barely hanging on — each one a different way of asking the same question: how good is Luka Modrić, really?
> The catch is that the answer keeps changing. Pick a different list, and he becomes a different player.
## Start with the biggest room: Europe's midfielders
Every conversation about Modrić eventually lands here, against Zidane, Iniesta, Xavi and Cruyff. He belongs in the photo — the argument is about the row.
The broadest possible room — and he still belongs in it. Play it →
## The Ballon d'Or club is less friendly
Measure the 2018 winner against Messi's eight and Ronaldo's five, and Modrić drops fast. One golden year against two entire eras — this is the list where his best season looks smallest.
The one year somebody else won — measured against the winners from the other twenty. Play it →
## In Real Madrid's midfield, he's the standard
Five hundred ninety-seven games, twenty-eight trophies — more than any player in the club's history. Against Zidane the player, Kroos and Makélélé, this is the room where Modrić argues for first place.
Twenty-eight trophies later, this is his strongest case. Play it →
## The trophy that got away
A final in 2018, a semi in 2022, a last dance at 40 in 2026 — and still no World Cup. That puts him on the most bittersweet list in football, alongside Cruyff, Eusébio and Baggio.
Five World Cups, twenty-three matches, one final — and no trophy. Play it →
## At the Euros, he's a footnote to giants
Platini's nine goals in one tournament, Ronaldo's five Euros, van Basten's volley. Modrić has been to six Euros and never past the quarter-finals — on this list he's the small name people scroll past.
A small name among Euro giants — he's on the list, not near the top. Play it →
## In Croatia, the question is settled
Most caps in history, the 2018 final, the armband for over a decade. Šuker and Boban built the legend; Modrić took it further than anyone thought possible. Here he isn't an option — he's the benchmark.
National-hero territory: most caps, the 2018 final, the armband for a decade. Play it →
## The £16.5m that London forgot to appreciate
Tottenham bought him from Dinamo Zagreb in 2008 and sold him four years later. Among Ronaldo, Drogba and Torres, his Premier League chapter reads like a footnote — until you remember what came next.
The £16.5m Tottenham chapter, next to Ronaldo and Drogba. Play it →
## Same club, narrower question: Real Madrid's No. 10
The white No. 10 has belonged to Zidane's successors and predecessors alike — Özil, Sneijder, even James Rodríguez. Modrić inherited it late in his career, which makes his claim here a genuine argument, not a coronation.
Same club, narrower question — the shirt-number lens. Play it →
## Best player of a whole World Cup
Only six men have won the Golden Ball this century, and Modrić's 2018 run with underdog Croatia sits between Zidane's 2006 and Rodri's 2026. A short list where everyone has a case.
2018's best player, judged against Zidane, Messi and now Rodri. Play it →
## The age lens: over 35 and still first-choice
A Champions League at 38, a World Cup starting spot at 40. Alongside Maldini, Zanetti and Ibrahimović, Modrić is one of the few whose late thirties looked like a plan rather than a farewell.
A Champions League at 38, a World Cup at 40 — few aged like this. Play it →
## The bargain lens: football's greatest freebies
In 2025 AC Milan signed a Ballon d'Or winner for nothing. A year later he was still starting World Cup games. On the list of free transfers he sits with Messi, Pirlo and Lewandowski — decent company for a player nobody paid for.
The 2025 Milan move: a World Cup starter, acquired for nothing. Play it →
## The size lens: 1.72 m in a giant's game
Hajduk Split turned him away as a boy for being too small and too shy. On the list of football's shortest greats he stands between Messi, Maradona and Xavi — proof the rejection said more about the scouts than the kid.
Rejected as too small by Hajduk Split; ranked among Messi and Maradona now. Play it →
## The unflattering lens — and the best comeback in it
In 2013, Marca readers voted him the worst signing of the La Liga season. What followed: six Champions Leagues, a Ballon d'Or, and the club record for trophies. Nobody on this list was written off harder, or answered louder.
Voted worst La Liga signing of 2012–13 by Marca readers. Then: six Champions Leagues and a Ballon d'Or. Play it →
## Back where it started: the Maksimir
Dinamo Zagreb raised him, loaned him out to a war-scarred Bosnian league, and sold him to London. Against Boban, Šuker's generation and the modern academy jewels, the kid who was too small tops the club's all-time list for most fans.
Back where it started: the Maksimir academy kid who outgrew every room. Play it →
## Fourteen questions, fourteen different players
Worst signing of the season and best player of the year. Too small for Split and too good for everyone else. First in Zagreb, mid-table among Ballon d'Or winners, a footnote at the Euros. None of those verdicts is wrong — they're just answers to different questions, which is the whole point of asking them one matchup at a time, [two options at a time](/articles/what-is-pairwise-comparison).
Got someone who turns up everywhere? Build a ranking and find out where they land.
