Luka Modric capped off a brilliant season by beating Cristiano Ronaldo and Mohamed Salah to win the UEFA Men’s Player of the Year award in Monaco on Thursday.
— UEFA Champions League (@ChampionsLeague) August 30, 2018
The 32-year-old, who also picked up the Champions League Midfielder of the Season award, becomes the first Croatian to win the honor, and the first player outside of Ronaldo and Barcelona star Lionel Messi to win since Franck Ribery during the 2012-13 campaign.
The honor comes in the wake of a season in which the gifted midfielder played a pivotal role in helping Real Madrid lift the Champions League trophy for the third consecutive year.
Modric was also instrumental during Croatia’s World Cup campaign in Russia, where he led the country to its first final appearance in the tournament. Despite losing to France, Modric’s superb performances were rewarded when he won the Golden Ball award as the best player at the World Cup.
? 5 Years Ago:
?? @LukaModric10 was voted the worst signing in La Liga.
? 5 Years On:
? 5x Team of the Year ? 4x UCL Winner ? La Liga Winner ? Copa Del Rey Winner
? Won World Cup Golden Ball ?? Captained Croatia to WC Final ?? UEFA Mens Player of the Year 17/18 pic.twitter.com/fBm4Dz6xq3
— SPORF (@Sporf) August 30, 2018
In order to win the honor Modric had to beat Ronaldo, a three-time winner and former teammate at Real Madrid, and Salah, who broke numerous records during a spectacular debut season at Liverpool.
Modric has a chance to collect another major individual honor next month after being named among the 10 finalists for the Best FIFA Men’s Player award. The other candidates include Ronaldo, Salah, Kevin De Bruyne, Antoine Griezmann, Eden Hazard, Harry Kane, Kylian Mbappe, Messi, and Raphael Varane.
The three finalists will be revealed Sept. 3 before the award ceremony takes place in London on Sept. 24.
Continental competition is rarely short on narratives. But in instances when the football fails to deliver on suspense, fixtures between sides with polarized European pedigree and matchups rife with historical context provide enough of a plot.
With Thursday’s Champions League draw in Monaco acting as a fitting venue to highlight both the opulence and frequently inequitable nature of European contests, here’s a glance at five storylines to watch in this year’s competition.
Familiar friends become feared foes
Reunited and it feels so good. Continental heavyweights Juventus and Manchester United are set to square off on two occasions with Group H honors on the line, with both Cristiano Ronaldo and Paul Pogba facing their former sides.
Ronaldo, who tormented the Premier League for six seasons while with United, bagged 16 goals in European competition with the Red Devils. The five-time Ballon d’Or winner also played under Jose Mourinho at Real Madrid, adding another wrinkle to a scenario not short on storylines. The bronzed Portuguese footballing deity will line up across from Pogba, who left United in 2012 due to a dearth of first-team appearances, only to return after four seasons with Juventus.
Not to be overlooked, speedy World Cup-winning Frenchman Thomas Lemar’s summer switch to the Spanish capital largely flew under the radar amid an enthralling quadrennial tourney in Russia, though the 22-year-old will be front and center when he faces former club Monaco in Group A play.
History champions Manchester City
With last season’s domestic double under his belt, Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola can now focus on replicating his continental successes at Barcelona with his current lot, and history favors the Catalan coach’s chances.
Since the Champions League format changed for the 2003-04 installment, 40 percent of the tournament winners have come from Group F. With City gifted a facile task of besting the likes of Shakhtar Donetsk, Hoffenheim, and a youthful Lyon side, Guardiola and Co. should advance to the knockout stage with two matches to play.
Poch’s return to Catalan country marks next notch for Spurs
When Tottenham drew with Real at the Bernabeu before dumping the Spaniards by a 3-1 margin at Wembley, it marked a coming-of-age tale for the Londoners. Spurs would top the group, and a year on, they have again been given a chance to prove their worth.
This time, the Argentine gaffer and his charges will travel to the Catalan capital to face Barcelona, providing an opportunity for Tottenham to continue carving their place among Europe’s emerging clubs. Pochettino, who enjoyed his best spell as a center-half with Barcelona cohabitant Espanyol, again faces a tough challenge with Eredivisie holder PSV and three-time European Cup winners Inter rounding out Group B.
Group(s) of Death
Those who fancy groups stacked with bonafide contenders have been dealt a fortuitous hand. Of the eight groups, only Group G (Real, Roma, CSKA Moscow, Viktoria Plzen) has two clear favorites, and only Group D merits a laugh (Lokomotiv Moscow, Porto, Schalke, Galatasaray).
That leaves a half-dozen groups littered with quality sides, including the aforementioned Group B. Pair that with several others boasting three accomplished sides, such as Group A (Atletico Madrid, Borussia Dortmund, and Monaco), Group C (Paris Saint-Germain, Napoli, and Liverpool), and Group H (Juventus, Manchester United, and Valencia), and there are four assemblages that can lay claim to the “Group of Death” distinction.
Schalke, Galatasaray come away the biggest winners
Of the 32 teams involved Thursday, no sides – besides Lancashire leviathan Manchester City – benefited from the draw like Bundesliga outfit Schalke and Turkish giant Galatasaray.
Slotted into Group D with the most inferior of the eight Pot 1 clubs – Russian Premier League holder Lokomotiv Moscow – along with defending Portuguese champions FC Porto, both Schalke and Galatasaray will entertain realistic hopes of advancing to the last-16. The Gelsenkirchen lot has made the knockout stage of European competition in seven of the last eight seasons, and with relative unknown Domenico Tedesco bossing a youthful praiseworthy side, Schalke could be one of the darlings of the 2018-19 Champions League.
London – Former Chelsea and England star John Terry has rejected the chance to make a shock move to Russian club Spartak Moscow.
Terry was reported to be on the verge of signing for Spartak after being flown by private jet to Rome on Friday for a medical.
The 37-year-old defender was believed to have been offered a wages in the region of £3 million ($3.9 million) for a one-year deal.
Spartak appeared confident of securing the high-profile signing, announcing on social media that they were preparing for “a very important guest”.
But after weighing up the move with his family, Terry, who has two children with his wife Toni, has opted against making the switch to Moscow.
“After considerable thought, I have decided to decline a contract offer from Spartak Moscow. I would like to take the opportunity to thank Spartak and wish them and their supporters well for the rest of the season,” Terry wrote on his official Instagram account.
“They are an ambitious club and I have been very impressed with their professionalism.
“But after assessing this move with my family, we’ve decided this is not the right move for ourselves at this time. Good luck Spartak.”
Terry spent last season with Championship side Aston Villa, but left after they failed to win promotion to the Premier League.
Following Villa’s play-off final loss to Fulham, Terry had considered retiring, but he told the Daily Mail on Saturday that he is keen to keep playing as long as possible.
Terry was one of Chelsea’s most decorated players, winning five Premier Leagues, five FA Cups, and the 2012 Champions League during his time at Stamford Bridge.
He also won 78 caps for England and captained his country on numerous occasions before being stripped of the armband after the Football Association ruled he had racially abused QPR’s Anton Ferdinand.
Split, Croatia – European Club Association (ECA) chairman Andrea Agnelli has confirmed that UEFA are clearing the way for the return of a third club competition, two decades after the disappearance of the Cup Winners’ Cup.
Agnelli, who is also on UEFA’s club competitions committee as well as being chairman of Juventus, said at the ECA’s General Assembly in Split, Croatia on Tuesday, that “the ‘green light’ has been given to introduce a third competition…as of the 2021-22 season”.
The move must now be validated at a future meeting of UEFA’s Executive Committee.
Agnelli said the move would mean a total of 96 teams being involved across the three competitions.
With 48 sides currently involved in the Europa League group stage, that would likely mean that competition being reduced to 32 teams, with the same number competing in the Champions League group stage and the new competition.
His comments come after UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin played down media reports on the subject when speaking to journalists in Monaco last month.
“They are just discussions, is it better to have 64 in the Europa League or 32 and 32? They are just discussions,” Ceferin said at the time.
The Cup Winners’ Cup ran for almost 40 years before being abandoned in 1999 at a time when the Champions League was being expanded.
