Luka Modric is Real Madrid’s oldest ever player: His best moments and place in club history

Luka Modric has become the oldest player in Real Madrid’s history at 39 years and 40 days old, overtaking their legendary Hungarian forward Ferenc Puskas.

Modric’s longevity at the top of the game is almost unrivalled. The Croatia midfielder’s 27 trophies across 13 seasons with Madrid are the most of any player in club history and he will soon rack up 550 appearances (he is on 547). Striker Raul is the club’s record appearance maker, having featured in 741 games from 1994-2010.

“By all the parameters of football… Luka should have retired a couple of years ago,” his friend and former Madrid striker Predrag Mijatovic told The Athletic last year. “But then you see him play and you have to say, ‘This guy is not 38 (as he was then), he is 28’.”

Here, we look at what Modric’s peers have said about him, the players he has overtaken to become Madrid’s oldest ever and how that record compares in the Champions League and La Liga — as well as recapping some of his best moments with the Spanish club.

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What have Modric’s former team-mates and coaches said about him?

Last year, The Athletic published a piece in which people who have played with and managed Modric paid tribute after he reached 500 appearances for Madrid — becoming only the 12th player to do so. Here are some of the highlights:

Ivan Rakitic, former Croatia team-mate: “He’s a lesson for all of us that age is just a number — he is still playing at a very high level, we are enjoying the football he is giving us, so let him keep doing the same and let the rest of us keep enjoying it.”

Slaven Bilic, ex-Croatia coach: “People ask me, ‘Did he change?’. Of course he changed, but like the iPhone changes every couple of years. They have reached the iPhone 15 or 16 — he has also upgraded, but he had it all in the beginning.”

Predrag Mijatovic, former striker and sporting director for Real Madrid: “You talk to him now and even with everything he has won, he is still crazy about winning. You say to him, ‘What difference does it make to have one trophy more or one less?’. But no. It’s unbelievable. His ambition, it’s different. He is never happy — he wants more and more.”

You can read the full piece here.

What are some of Modric’s best moments for Madrid?

It’s impossible to list all of Modric’s highlights in a Real Madrid shirt. But we’ve had a go here. Feel free to suggest your own in the comments.

Goal against Manchester United, Champions League last 16 second leg, March 2013

The moment Modric’s Madrid career took off after a mixed first season following his move from Tottenham Hotspur of the Premier League.

After the first leg finished 1-1 at the Bernabeu, Madrid were 1-0 down at Old Trafford following a Sergio Ramos own-goal. Nani had been shown a controversial red card to reduce the home side to 10 men but Modric made sure Madrid’s nerves were truly settled when he picked up the ball in United’s half, skipped past Michael Carrick and rifled home a right-footed finish via the post from distance.

📆 Tal día como hoy en 2013…
🎩 ¡La magia de @lukamodric10 es ♾️!
🆚 @ManUtd_Es #RealFootball pic.twitter.com/Etd8FquAlM

— Real Madrid C.F. (@realmadrid) March 5, 2023

Corner for Sergio Ramos goal against Atletico Madrid, Champions League final, May 2014

Everyone remembers Ramos as the hero of La Decima — Madrid’s previously elusive 10th European Cup/Champions League trophy — but the centre-back’s late header to force extra time came from a typically excellent Modric delivery. The most significant goal in Madrid’s modern history — and one made by Modric.

⏱️ 92:48.
🏆 LA DÉCIMA#RealFootball | #OTD pic.twitter.com/yGpC0N9j5v

— Real Madrid C.F. 🇬🇧🇺🇸 (@realmadriden) May 24, 2023

Goal against Barcelona, La Liga, October 2020

This goal loses something because of the setting — an empty Camp Nou during the pandemic — but it still demonstrates some of Modric’s best traits.

With Madrid 2-1 up and Barcelona goalkeeper Neto scrambling as Modric receives the ball on the edge of the area, he deftly shifts to the right, then to his left, with Neto helpless, before poking home with the outside of his right boot.

For viewers in the UK:

Luka Modric surely seals the Clasico victory for the reigning champions! 🔥

Neto’s spill created the chance, but the Croatian was so composed in biding his time and applying the finish 👏 pic.twitter.com/sbKw7WBr05

— Premier Sports (@PremSportsTV) October 24, 2020

For viewers in the U.S.:

¡Y llegó el gol de Luka Modric!
El croata marcó el tercero del @realmadrid #ElClásico #beINClásico pic.twitter.com/YeOFogt3Y4

— beIN SPORTS Español (@ESbeINSPORTS) October 24, 2020

Through ball for Karim Benzema against Paris Saint-Germain, Champions League last 16 second leg, March 2022

The first in a series of remarkable comebacks by Madrid en route to winning their 14th European Cup.

Madrid were drawing 1-1 with Paris Saint-Germain at the Bernabeu and losing 2-1 on aggregate with 14 minutes of the 90 to go when Modric regained possession in his own half, burst past Neymar and Idrissa Gueye and played an inch-perfect through ball for Vinicius Junior. The winger held up play before offloading to an unmarked Modric, who threaded another fine pass for Benzema to score his second of the night, before the Frenchman completed his hat-trick with the winner two minutes later.

Outside-of-the-boot pass to Rodrygo against Chelsea, Champions League quarter-final second leg, April 2022

Another crucial Modric moment in a Champions League comeback that season.

Chelsea had somehow fought back from a 3-1 first-leg loss at home to lead 3-0 in Madrid, and 4-3 on aggregate with 10 minutes of the 90 remaining. Which is when Modric took control, looking up and playing a remarkable outside-of-the-boot pass for Rodrygo to run onto and draw the sides level overall. Benzema then won the tie in extra time.

🅰️ Masterclass of assists!@lukamodric10 | #Modrić2024 pic.twitter.com/HKcI4SCpCn

— Real Madrid C.F. 🇬🇧🇺🇸 (@realmadriden) June 26, 2023

Who are Madrid’s other oldest players?

Ferenc Puskas (39 years and 37 days)

One of the most iconic players in Madrid’s history — as much as for his backstory as for what he achieved in the Spanish capital.

Puskas starred for the Hungary team who inflicted a 6-3 defeat on England in 1953 — their first loss against foreign opposition at Wembley — and reached the following year’s World Cup final. Then, in 1956, he took advantage of a tour by his club side, Budapest’s Honved, to leave his home country after the Soviet Union quashed an attempted uprising there. World governing body FIFA subsequently imposed a two-year playing ban on Puskas at the Hungarian FA’s request.

That meant Puskas was 31 years old and 18kg (40lb) overweight by the time he arrived at Madrid in 1958. Not that it mattered: he soon slotted into a team who were on their way to winning the first five European Cups and earned the Spanish nickname ‘Canoncito Pum’ (roughly translated as ‘Booming Little Cannon’) for his powerful left foot.

He went on to score 242 times in 262 games for Madrid, winning five La Liga titles and three European Cups — the latter including four goals in the 7-3 win in the 1960 final against Eintracht Frankfurt at Glasgow’s Hampden Park, with his friend Alfredo Di Stefano getting the other three. “It was one of those blissful times when the whole team seemed to play brilliantly and we almost achieved some kind of footballing perfection,” he later said, as quoted in the book Puskas On Puskas.

FIFA named its award for the best goal scored anywhere worldwide in a calendar year after Puskas in 2009, three years after his death at age 79 following a battle with Alzheimer’s disease.

Paco Buyo (38 years and 63 days)

Buyo was the goalkeeper behind the team known as ‘La Quinta del Buitre’ — ‘The Vulture’s Cohort’, referring to striker Emilio Butragueno’s nickname and his fellow academy graduates Manolo Sanchis, Rafael Martin Vazquez, Michel and Miguel Pardeza.

Though he was not one of those homegrown stars, joining from Sevilla in 1986, Buyo played a key role in four of the five La Liga titles the side won in a row from 1986-90. He stood out for his speed, reflexes and unique style, often rushing out of his area to intercept passes and would even dribble past opponents after winning possession.

“Lots of people called me crazy… but I was ahead of my time,” he told Spanish newspaper El Mundo in 2021. “When we watch football now, who was the crazy one? Today there’s lots of praise for goalkeepers like me, but back then I was a Martian.”

He retired in 1997, after a season in which he didn’t feature at all following the arrival of German Bodo Illgner. Iker Casillas (with 725) is the only goalkeeper to have made more appearances for Madrid than Buyo’s 451, the last of which was a 2-0 La Liga win against Albacete in March 1996.

Jerzy Dudek (38 years and 59 days)

An outlier on this list, Dudek only played 12 times for Madrid after joining from Liverpool in 2007, two years after his Champions League final heroics against AC Milan in Istanbul.

“Real Madrid spoke to me when we were in Athens preparing for the Champions League final (that May, also against Milan) and I was laughing saying, ‘Don’t joke with me’,” the Polish goalkeeper told UK newspaper The Guardian in 2008. “I never thought it would be possible to join a bigger club than Liverpool, but I was wrong.”

Dudek was rarely called on as Casillas’ understudy but picked up a La Liga winner’s medal in his first season and one after the 2011 Copa del Rey final, when Madrid beat Barcelona with the clubs’ El Clasico rivalry at its fiercest.

He was given a guard of honour by his team-mates and a standing ovation by the Bernabeu crowd when he was replaced in his last senior appearance, against Almeria in May 2011.

Alfredo Di Stefano (37 years and 328 days)

Possibly the most important player in Madrid’s history.

Argentina-born Di Stefano joined the club in 1953 and helped forge their legend by inspiring those first five European Cups as well as eight La Liga titles. Nicknamed ‘La Saeta Rubia’ (The Blond Arrow), he was nominally a forward but contributed all over the pitch.

His seven goals in European Cup finals are only matched by Puskas — Cristiano Ronaldo is the next-most prolific in Champions League/European Cup finals with four for Manchester United and Madrid — and he was the club’s record goalscorer with 308 in 396 games until Raul surpassed him in 2009 (Cristiano Ronaldo and Benzema have since overtaken the latter). Madrid’s website simply describes Di Stefano as ‘The best footballer of all time’.

Di Stefano went on to have two spells as Madrid’s manager in the 1980s and 1990s and was named an honorary president of the club, but that was small potatoes compared to his achievements as a player. When he died in 2014, aged 88, his casket was displayed at the Bernabeu.

“In 50 years, Real Madrid won two La Liga titles,” their former player, manager, sporting director and now-pundit Jorge Valdano wrote for newspaper El Pais after his death. “Alfredo arrived and, in the next 50, the club won more titles than all the Spanish teams put together. Such a solid fact doesn’t need nuance, because that’s called changing history.”

How does Modric’s record compare with the marks for the La Liga and the Champions League?

Modric has a way to go until he becomes the oldest Champions League player — that honour belongs to the Italian goalkeeper Marco Ballotta, who was 43 years and 252 days old when he played for Lazio against Real Madrid in a 3-1 group-stage defeat in December 2007.

He’ll have to wait even longer if he wants to become the oldest player in La Liga history: Englishman Harry Lowe was 48 when he turned out for Real Sociedad in 1935.

But there is one more record Modric will be aiming for this season — becoming the oldest player to win the Champions League. He is currently second on that list, behind Milan great Paolo Maldini, after Madrid’s triumph over Borussia Dortmund at Wembley last season.

Maldini was 38 years and 331 days old when Milan beat Liverpool in that 2007 final mentioned above. When the 2024-25 final takes place at Munich’s Allianz Stadium on May 31, Modric will be 39 years and 264 days old.

(Top photo: Guillermo Martinez/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)