Barcelona rejected the chance to sign Modric from Dinamo Zagreb
The Croatian midfielder signed for Real Madrid in the summer of 2012 and has been nothing short of a revelation but Barcelona once rejected the chance to sign the diminutive midfielder. Barcelona-Alaves live
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Barcelona had the chance to sign Luka Modric before his switch to Tottenham Hotspur, according to Bojan Krkic's father, who used to work as a scout for the Catalan club.
He says the club did not want to sign him because they were only thinking of the immediate future and not in the long term.
The Croatian midfielder went on to make a name for himself at Tottenham before a 2012 summer move to Real Madrid, where he has moved his game to another level and become one of the best central midfielders in the world.
"I saw it clearly, just like with the Franck Ribery case, we had it in our hands," Krcic said.
Rejecting Luka Modric
"Modric is a player with a winning mentality but the club was not thinking long-term and only in the immediate to short term," Krcic continued.
"Our contact in Croatia told us about the beauty of Modric before he signed with Tottenham. I worked with Barcelona then and we were given a selection of DVDs of Modric with Dinamo Zagreb and Croatia's national team."
Too many midfielders at the time
The problem at the time was that Guardiola had plenty of central midfielders such as Xavi, Iniesta, Yaya Toure and Sergio Busquets and they didn't contemplate the signing, he says.
Krcic asked for former Croatian and Milan midfielder, Boban's opinion, on the matter and he was in little doubt that Modric would be a future start of world football.