AC Milan star Luka Modrić has revealed Chelsea wanted him before he completed a move to Tottenham Hotspur.
The Croatia international has been speaking to YouTube channel (Ne)uspjeh Prvaka. Sportske Novosti have relayed comments made by the 40-year-old on Chelsea’s interest and his move to Tottenham.
The midfielder left Dinamo Zagreb for Tottenham in 2008. Prior to that, their London rivals had made a concrete approach to acquire his signature.
Modrić has now explained his initial plan was to stay at Dinamo Zagreb be successful with them. However, he had to change his plans after seeing some of his teammates leave the Croatian club. This left him demoralised, and Chelsea came forward for his signature.
The former Real Madrid star says Dinamo Zagreb weren’t keen. This didn’t please Modrić, who immediately said yes to Tottenham after they made an approach.
“I didn’t mind staying longer because I wanted to stay at Dinamo, but I felt guilty, I wanted to do something in Europe,” he said.
“But the first offer: Čarli leaves, my best friend. The second offer: Dudu leaves. You look at ‘so why if there’s talk that we want to do something big?!’ But I still wanted to stay, I enjoyed Dinamo, I had a good time.
“But then the half-season came and Vukojević and someone else left, so I thought what to do, I got angry and got into a small conflict with the club because I wanted to leave. Then Chelsea appeared, the club didn’t want to let me go and when Tottenham contacted me in June, I immediately said I was leaving.”
The Croatian spent four years at Spurs before leaving for Real Madrid in 2012. A year before that, Chelsea tried to sign him.
Daniel Levy was then in charge at Tottenham and refused to let Modrić join the Blues. Another report from Sportske Novosti relayed his quotes.
“I wanted to go, maybe I shouldn’t have said it, but I wanted to make a move,” Modrić explained.
“Tottenham were tough, I had a frank conversation with the chairman, and he made it clear that there was no chance of them letting me go. And I carried on as if nothing was happening.
“It turned out even better because there probably wouldn’t have been Real Madrid if I had gone to Chelsea then, at least not soon.”