Peter Crouch has lifted the lid on the “absolute genius” he witnessed from Luka Modric during their time together at Tottenham Hotspur.
Today, Crouch is often seen as a comic figure through his appearances in bookies adverts and his ‘That Peter Crouch’ podcast.
But it’s important to remember that this is a player who scored 22 goals in 42 games for England, while sharing the pitch with Steven Gerrard, Sol Campbell, Fernando Torres and Gareth Bale throughout his career.
Another star Crouch saw up close and personal is Luka Modric.
The Croatian midfielder will of course be best known for his wonderful spell at Real Madrid, where he made over 500 appearances in 12 years, winning four La Liga titles and six Champions Leagues among many other major honours.
Modric has also tasted success at international level, helping Croatia reach a World Cup final and semi-final, and a UEFA Nations League final, with his role in the former helped win the Ballon d’Or.
But it was at Tottenham that he began to catch the eye at the highest level, playing 160 times for the club between 2008 and 2012, helping them qualify for the Champions League.
Crouch recalls Luka Modric’s “genius” at Spurs
Even at 39, Modric is still going strong for the Whites, even as his younger partner in crime at the Santiago Bernabéu, Toni Kroos, he called time on his career in the summer.
Picking his XI from former team-mates of all time, Crouch put Modric in midfield and revealed some of the brilliance he witnessed during their time together at White Hart Lane.
“I’ve got a lot of great players I’ve played with, but Luka Modric is the man to come in,” Crouch said (via TBR).
“I never saw him give the ball away, literally the whole time I was at Tottenham, and I talk about it in training as well. I just had these bare hips and would get out of situations.
“He beat two or three men and you would think ‘how has he done that?’
“An incredible passer of the ball. Luka Modric directed football matches, he was not a box-to-box midfielder, but an absolute genius of a footballer and one of the best guys I would ever meet.”
Top photo by Catherine Ivill/Getty Images
