WHEN all is said and done, Luka Modric will go down as one of football’s all-time greats.
The Real Madrid legend led Croatia to a World Cup final in 2018 – and proved it was no fluke by helping them to a third-placed finish four years later.
As well as racking up 168 caps for his nation, Modric has won three LaLiga crowns to go with his FIVE Champions League honours – while getting his hands on the 2018 Ballon d’Or.
A legendary passer of the ball and true leader on the pitch, there isn’t a football fan on the planet who hasn’t heard of him.
But what you might not know is that Modric has a Premier League cult icon for a cousin.
In the 1960s, a man named Joe jumped on a ship heading from Yugoslavia to Australia.
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That man was first cousin to Modric’s father…
A decade later, he welcomed a son to the family – a son who would grow up to become an Australian legend.
The striker, extremely proud of his Croatian heritage, turned pro in 1993 with local side Melbourne Knights.
Two years later, he moved to Dinamo Zagreb where he attracted the attention of scouts with his red-hot goalscoring form – helping them win the domestic top flight in all three seasons at the club.
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In 1998, he moved to Celtic, where he would score 30 times in just 37 Scottish Premiership games.
As a new millennium was born, the striker moved to Leeds – the home of arguably his most-famous achievement.
In case you haven’t worked it out yet, the man in question is Mark Viduka.
The forward signed for Leeds in a £6million deal and would go on to score 59 goals in 130 Premier League games.
Most-famously, Viduka scored all four goals in a dramatic 4-3 win over Liverpool in 2000.
After four seasons at Leeds – ending in Premier League relegation – the Aussie moved north to Middlesbrough – netting 26 goals in 72 games – and then defected to rivals Newcastle.
Viduka scored seven times in 38 games across two seasons before hanging up his boots.
He scored 11 times for his country in 43 games and was inducted into Australia’s Hall of Fame in 2023.
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To this day, his four Champions League strikes are the most by any Australian in Europe’s elite club competition.
But he can hardly brag about his European Cup exploits around the family dinner table when his cousin has five medals draped around his neck, now, can he?
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
