He was probably world's greatest midfielder, top 3 at least, from 2014 to 2017. And he was often considered underrated and unfairly in CR7's shadow. But everything changed in 2018. People were sick of Messi and CR7 always winning the Ballon D'or, so Modrić won virtually all individual awards in 2018 despite the fact that he, like Madrid's team as a whole, hadn't a great season, probably there are at least 3 or 4 seasons in which Modrić was truly great and clearly better than in 2018. Him being by far Croatia's best player in last decade combined with him reaching the World Cup final with Croatia made him an easy choice for the award of World Cup's best player despite the fact that he maybe was not even Croatia's best player in the campaign and also rarely being really good, like Croatia's matches as a whole in their campaign at the World Cup. His performance against Russia was specially dreadful, misplacing passes all the time and missing a penalty. Hazard was 2018's WC best player in my opinion.
Anyway, all of this combined with his and Real's team immediate huge decline in the 2018/2019 season, though many problems had already appeared in the 2017/2018 season (Real was poor and inferior to Bayern in both semi-final legs and they also finished 17 points behind Barcelona in 2017/2018 La Liga), has really affected his reputation negatively unfairly alongside recency bias. Real won the UCL in 2018, but their level of football had already significantly declined throughout that season. Modrić had at least 3 better seasons than in 2018, mainly 2014 and 2017. Not so much statistically, but the level of football that he played. Salah or CR7 should have won the 2018 Ballon D'Or. He has become often mocked and ridiculed as overrated due to his Ballon D'or win and people forget how good he was in the previous years.
Anyway, all of this combined with his and Real's team immediate huge decline in the 2018/2019 season, though many problems had already appeared in the 2017/2018 season (Real was poor and inferior to Bayern in both semi-final legs and they also finished 17 points behind Barcelona in 2017/2018 La Liga), has really affected his reputation negatively unfairly alongside recency bias. Real won the UCL in 2018, but their level of football had already significantly declined throughout that season. Modrić had at least 3 better seasons than in 2018, mainly 2014 and 2017. Not so much statistically, but the level of football that he played. Salah or CR7 should have won the 2018 Ballon D'Or. He has become often mocked and ridiculed as overrated due to his Ballon D'or win and people forget how good he was in the previous years.
