Luka Modric named his five greatest players and left out Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. The AC Milan midfielder went with Diego Maradona, Zinedine Zidane, Francesco Totti, Ronaldo Nazário, and Zvonimir Boban. The answer came in a quick on-camera chat with Tik Tokker Delantero09.
Treat it less as a snub and more as a personal pantheon. At 40, Modric is in a reflective chapter in Italy after leaving Real Madrid in July, a change that reset his daily rhythm and his frame of reference.
The choices trace his influences. Boban is the childhood idol and the bridge between Croatia and Milan. Totti represents place and loyalty. Zidane is the template for a complete midfielder and the coach who set standards Modric lived through at Madrid.
Ronaldo Nazário is the pure shock. He broke matches open before we tracked everything. Maradona anchors the list and the feeling behind it. Modric has said it outright in Spanish, “Diego es el más grande,” upon receiving Maradona’s 1994 World Cup kit last year. The line explains how you can rate Messi among the greats and still keep a childhood demigod at number one.
@delantero09 Top 5 Futbolistas de Luka Modric 🤯⚽️
♬ sonido original – Delantero09
What Modric is really telling us
Ask a veteran to define greatness and you usually hear the names that shaped him. The list leans toward leaders who changed games with presence and decision making rather than volume metrics. It also contains no active players, which helps explain the omissions that caught the most attention.
Context matters. Modric’s Milan spell is about craft and stewardship, not ceremony. A pick like Boban makes sense inside a club that treats its captains as cultural north stars. For the wider national backdrop around Boban’s influence, see Croatia’s all-time greatest XI.
A nod to Totti tracks with how elite peers elevate Roman loyalty beyond numbers.
Online reactions split between “snub” and “of course,” which is the usual cycle. The better read is simpler. Modric’s privileged personality, leadership, and the ability to slow time in big moments. That has always mirrored his own game, whether in Madrid or now in red and black.
