Luka Modric has revealed he almost joined London rivals from Tottenham Hotspur before eventually moving to Real Madrid back in 2011.<\/p>\n
He even met with Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich, on the yacht.<\/p>\n
The Croatia international has been attracting interest from top European clubs at the time, after scintillating performance for Spurs in the Premier League and the Champions League campaign.<\/p>\n
But Modric admitted he was interested to move to Chelsea and fully aware of Chelsea\u2019s attempts to sign him.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith the 2010-11 Premier League season over, I was ready for my summer vacation,\u201d he wrote in Luka Modric: My Autobiography, which is being serialised by The Guardian.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut it didn\u2019t last long, as my agents \u2013 Vlado Lemic and Davor Curkovic \u2013 passed on Chelsea\u2019s wish to sign me.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was open to the idea of moving, but then things happened at lightning speed. First, [my wife] Vanja and I took a private jet from Zadar to Cannes, where my management team were waiting.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was all very exciting. Twenty or so people, who seemed part of the security detail, met us at the boat. It was quick and well organised; just as we made ourselves comfortable on one of the luxury decks, Abramovich showed up.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was accompanied by his wife Dasha and their son. I was fascinated by the discreet disappearance of all the security people just as he arrived. It was obvious they were well trained \u2013 their timing was perfect.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe wasn\u2019t beating around the bush and said: \u2018We know you are a quality player. I\u2019d like you to sign for Chelsea\u2019. I had come to his yacht to talk, so it was evident I wished the same.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMy feeling was that it was time for a move \u2013 I wanted to fight for trophies and win titles, and I felt this wouldn\u2019t happen if I stayed at Tottenham. I wanted to move to a more ambitious club.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2018Do you think Tottenham will resist your transfer? Are they going to put up a fight?\u2019 Abramovich asked. \u2018I think the negotiations are going to be tough\u2019, I replied, because I knew the clubs were not on good terms.\u201d<\/p>\n
Modric stayed at Spurs for another season before moving to Real Madrid, where he has won two La Liga titles, three Champions League titles and won the Ballon d\u2019Or.<\/p>\n
But he admitted that he didn\u2019t think Spurs chairman Daniel Levy will ever let him go.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t know if and when Levy would agree to sell me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I was convinced it was time to move on, to a new and bigger challenge. After four wonderful years, during which we felt at home in England, Vanja and I knew this life had come to an end.\u201d<\/p>\n
Credit: Football Tribe Malaysia<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Luka Modric has revealed he almost joined London rivals from Tottenham Hotspur before eventually moving to Real Madrid back in 2011. He even met with Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich, on the yacht. The Croatia international has been attracting interest from top European clubs at the time, after scintillating performance for Spurs in the Premier League and the Champions League campaign. But Modric admitted he was interested to move to Chelsea and fully aware of Chelsea\u2019s attempts to sign him. \u201cWith the 2010-11 Premier League season over, I was ready for my summer vacation,\u201d he wrote in Luka Modric: My Autobiography, which is being serialised by The Guardian. \u201cBut it didn\u2019t … Continue reading “Luka Modric reveals he almost joined Chelsea”<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":86,"featured_media":23905,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1639,1640],"tags":[197,635,1678,281,95,232],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23904"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/86"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23904"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23904\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23906,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23904\/revisions\/23906"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}