Luka Modrić is reportedly going to announce his retirement from football after World Cup 2026, after his club AC Milan failed to qualify for Champions League next season. Milan ended the season in fifth place, one point behind Como, and will play in Europa League next season: an improvement from last year, where they finished eighth and failed to enter any European competition, but not what Modrić had expected: his renovation at Milan depended on the condition that the team would qualify for the top competition.
Without Champions League, Luka Modrić has lost interest in continuing with Milan, and after fulfilling his one-year contract, he is not expected to renew. Instead of looking for another club to hire him, Modrić will announce his retirement from professional football after World Cup, according to a report from Italian journalist Nicolò Schira.
According to AS, his decision comes after a couple of days thinking about the future, and while the club will try to convince him otherwise, it seems that playing possibly the final season of his career (he turns 41 in September) in the Europa League is not enticing enough for the winner of six Champions Leagues with Real Madrid and Ballon d'Or winner.
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Modrić would leave Milan after a year of turmoil, with fans protesting about the poor performance of the team in the final parts of the season, and the destitution of manager Massimilaino Allegri and most of the sporting executives, including Sporting Director Igli Tare and CEO Giorgio Furlani, all of them fired. But first, he has one final World Cup to appear, with group stage matches against England, Panama, and Ghana.