World Cup 2026: How Luka Modric and Croatia continue to defy the odds

However, it would take 20 years for Croatia to get out of the World Cup group stage, bettering the original golden generation by reaching the final in Russia in 2018. But the seeds were planted long ago.

Zožak, whose own professional career was cut short by injury, held a number of coaching roles with Dinamo Zagreb’s youth team before becoming the club’s academy director, sporting director and technical director of the Croatian Football Federation (CFF) at various stages.

He was still a young coach leading Dinamo’s second team when Modric joined as a 16-year-old from Zadar after being overlooked by Hajduk Split.

“He was always a good guy, well-educated, humble,” explains Zozak. “He was no doubt, because we always saw something in him.

“But you couldn’t say ‘Listen, he’s going to be a superstar’, because he was short and skinny, and how could you say this guy was going to dominate the world, right?

“He’s always been as reliable as you can put him in the team, he’s not going to lose balls where he’s not supposed to. He’s always going to fight, he’s always going to make runs, he’s always going to deliver.

“But he wasn’t even in the top three prospects at the time.”

Before spending a season with Inter Zapresic in Croatia, the hair-obsessed young midfielder was sent out on loan to Bosnian Premier League side Jirinjski Mostar to gain first-team exposure.

“Football is very unpredictable, personality-based,” Zozak said. “His personality drove him. Spending a year in Bosnia made him tougher. He literally survived.

“He was a kid, he was skinny and young, but he had this drive, he had this hunger – like a bull terrier, he wanted to tear apart every possible tackle and tackle he faced.”