Luka Modric Real Madrid talk has a way of resurfacing, but rarely this directly. Inside a few hours the Croatian has told Marca that Madrid is still his home and he intends to live there again, and told AS that Jose Mourinho — the man who forced through his signing from Tottenham — is the reason he ever pulled on the white shirt.
Modric left the Santiago Bernabeu in 2025 after 13 years and turns 41 next week. He is at Milan now, fit, playing, and by every line of both interviews entirely unfinished with Madrid.
"Madrid is my home and I'd like to return"
Marca found him at Milanello, Milan's training base out among the trees, and the headline he gave them needs no translation gymnastics: "Madrid is my home and I'd like to return."
It is not a football sentence, and that is what makes it land. Marca describe a man who misses the city after 13 years that shaped his life and his family's, whose children are madrilenos and feel like it, and who does not hide where he pictures himself once he stops playing.
The playing part shows no sign of being over. "Since I was six there hasn't been a week when I haven't trained," he told Marca, explaining how he is still competing at this level at nearly 41. He also made the case for veteran footballers generally: look less at the ID card, more at what happens on the grass.
The Luka Modric Real Madrid story starts with Mourinho
The other interview, given to AS and relayed by Madrid Universal, explains where the affection comes from. Almost 15 years ago it was Mourinho who told the club, in Modric's telling, "I want him or nobody else" — and the negotiation with Tottenham dragged so badly that the midfielder is convinced it would have collapsed without the manager digging in.
"That's why I came to Real Madrid," he said. "The way the negotiations unfolded, perhaps if it hadn't been for that, Real Madrid would have withdrawn from the deal because of all the back and forth. That's why I have so much affection and respect for him. My only regret is not having worked with him longer."
And, more plainly still: "Mourinho is special to me because of how he fought for my signing; that's something you don't forget. I would do anything for him. Although we don't talk much, we sometimes exchange messages, but I always wish him the best."
"A different Real Madrid, a fearsome Real Madrid"
He did not hedge on the appointment either. "You can already see from the first few matches that this is a different Real Madrid, a fearsome Real Madrid," he said. "I think Mourinho's appointment was a very wise decision by the club, the best option for that position considering the team and everything.
"He knows the club, he's a winner, he has an incredible personality… he's at the best club in the world, and he's one of the best coaches in history."
From someone who spent 13 years watching coaches arrive and leave, that is worth more than the usual ex-player endorsement — and it matches the scoreboard. Mourinho, appointed in June 2026 on a deal to 2029, has taken nine points from nine, the best start of his Real Madrid career, with the 4-1 win over Real Sociedad the pick of it.
What it actually means
Nothing concrete, and it would be dishonest to pretend otherwise. Modric is a Milan player under contract, talking about where he wants to live rather than a job he has been offered. No role at Madrid was reported or discussed in either interview.
But clubs of this size keep their legends close, and the midfield he vacated is still being rebuilt in his absence — Mourinho spent the summer working out who inherits the role Modric used to own. Hearing him say Madrid is home, unprompted, while backing the manager in the dugout, is the sort of thing Madridistas file away rather than forget.
The present is a trip to Seville: Los Blancos resume on Friday night at La Cartuja with seven players still in the treatment room. Modric will be watching from Italy. He always is.
