"Even so, I did very well at Tottenham. They were very tough on me, and the chairman, Daniel Levy, made it crystal clear in our first meeting [that] there was absolutely no chance they would let me go. After that, I carried on as if nothing had happened. I knew it would be complicated; both clubs are in London, and there's a rivalry."
"In the end, it didn't happen, and I kept playing, and it was perhaps one of my best seasons. We finished fourth; that year Chelsea won the Champions League. The season was phenomenal, and a year later, an even better opportunity came along. And in the end, it worked out even better; probably if I had joined to Chelsea, I wouldn't have gone to Real Madrid."
Luka Modric sought a move to Chelsea in summer 2011, but Tottenham rejected several bids and prevented the transfer. Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy made clear there was no chance Modric would leave, and Modric remained at Spurs, producing one of his best seasons as the club finished fourth while Chelsea won the Champions League. Modric joined Real Madrid a year later, spent 13 seasons there, won a record 28 titles and the 2018 Ballon d'Or. Modric views the failed Chelsea move as beneficial and believes joining Chelsea then might have excluded the later Real Madrid transfer. Modric signed for Tottenham in 2008 for £16.5m from Dinamo Zagreb and made over 150 appearances.
Read at ESPN.com
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