Modrić to Milan Is Perfect — and an Indictment
What does the 39-year-old Croatian legend's potential transfer tell us about Serie A?
Luka Modrić could go to AC Milan, and that’s a headline that makes sense. One of the world’s greatest-ever players headed to one of its biggest clubs. Modrić is 40 in September, though, and Milan are not the powers of Europe that they were in the 90s and 2000s. That this deal is happening while a prime-age Tijjani Reijnders leaves the San Siro for Manchester City might just tell the story of today’s Serie A.
Italy’s league is far from a retirement home, to be clear. There are lots of good teams competing for the top seven or eight spots in the league. There is stunning parity and good football. Anyone who thinks the hyperdefensive calcio of yesteryear still reigns on the peninsula doesn’t watch games.
But it’s also true that Serie A just cannot compete with the financial might of the Premier League, the petroclubs, or even the top end of the Bundesliga or La Liga. Reijnders is going to City because they’ve got the cash to pay him well and put him in a position to win major titles. There aren’t many clubs in Italy who can say either one.
Inter have reached the Champions League final twice in three years — and probably should have won the first of those — but their squad was ultimately too thin to manage a packed schedule across four competitions this term. Even as the powers of Italy over the last few years, they’ve signed a lot of aging players on free transfers. Now the Nerazzuri are embarking on a rebuild, and so might Atalanta. Napoli have put together a couple of great domestic campaigns recently, but Juventus are not the same force of old and Milan have fallen out of contention. How often can we truly expect to see Italian teams at the business end of the Champions League in the years to come?
It would be romantic for Modrić to go to Milan, and he’d surely play some great passes. But it’s not the move of a team ready to compete with Real Madrid, the club that the legendary Croatian will soon depart after winning everything many times over. Another of the great midfielders of the modern era, 33-year-old Kevin De Bruyne, is coming down to play for the Italian champions, Napoli — but only after City told him he was finished at their level. If Inter aren’t there among the powers of Europe next season, it’s hard to see any of their peers in Serie A taking their place on the mountaintop.
While the Club World Cup pretends to decide which is the World’s Best Club, we’ll make another assessment ….
The best teams in Europe at the beginning of Summer 2025:
PSG
BARCELONA
LIVERPOOL
INTER MILAN
ARSENAL
BAYERN MUNICH
REAL MADRID
NAPOLI
ATLÉTICO MADRID
MANCHESTER CITY
BAYER LEVERKUSEN
Inter Milan are set for a complete reboot this summer after disastrous defeat in the Champions League final, but they were nonetheless a hugely impressive team last season. They just didn’t have a big enough squad to play 59 matches at high intensity.
Arsenal’s problems were similar, with a lot of players missing a lot of games. They took a major backwards step with their goalscoring, but who apart from Liverpool gave PSG a better game this spring? The Gunners dealt Real Madrid a beating in the Champions League quarterfinals, too, but Los Blancos are a strong side who finished four points behind swashbuckling Barcelona in La Liga. Alongside PSG, those Catalans were the attacking class of Europe.
Napoli won Serie A at Inter’s expense but without a hugely impressive points tally, which is why they’re behind Madrid and Bayern Munich. The Bavarians lost to Inter in the UCL quarterfinals in April — no shame there — and won the Bundesliga at a canter. They’re breathing down Arsenal’s neck here.
Manchester City and Atlético Madrid had disappointing seasons, but they both went out to Real Madrid in the Champions League and finished third domestically. Leverkusen did not show up massively well in Germany or Europe, but it was Bayern who knocked them out of contention in both the league and Champions League.
How different will this table look in August?
Great read. Think it's still fair to say with the obvious financial discrepancies, Milan don't help themselves by being a basket case. Saw they want to sign Zinchenko. Surely would be much more worthwhile looking at younger, higher resale value players than spending £15m a piece on him and Emerson Royal, for example.