Sports Illustrated places Modrić on list of all-time greats

The "Sports Illustrated" (SI) magazine has published a list of "The 50 Greatest Soccer Players of All Time", featuring Croatia's Luka Modrić.

This US sports magazine says that "ranking the 50 greatest soccer players of all time is no easy task."

"It's also one that's sure to spark debates. Zidane, Ronaldo, Ronaldo again, Messi, Maradona, how does one compare one star of a generation to another?

"Because there was method in the following madness, the following list was carefully collated with each of the following players' 'peaks' in mind."

The ranking is topped by Lionel Messi, whereas Kylian Mbappe ranks 50th.

Croatia's best ever soccer player - the country's current national team captain - is 49th on this list.

The newspaper cites Modrić's major achievements: 2018 Ballon d'Or, 2018 UEFA Men's Best Player of the Year, 2018 the Best FIFA Men's Player, FIFA World Cup Golden Ball 2018, six UEFA Champions Leagues.

"We start off with a man who did the impossible in 2018: in the Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo-era, he won the Ballon d'Or," the editors say in the section on Modrić.

"Luka Modrić's ending of the decade of dominance of football's greatest individual was more than deserved. At the very peak of his powers, Modrić led an unfancied Croatian outfit to the 2018 FIFA World Cup final and won approximately a billion UEFA Champions League titles with Real Madrid."