Former Rangers manager Ally McCoist has revealed he told the Scottish club to sign Luka Modric before the future Ballon d’Or winner joined Tottenham Hotspur.
The midfielder, who was crowned the world’s best player in last year’s awards, made the move to Spurs from Dinamo Zagreb in 2008.
Modric spent four years with Tottenham, making over 150 appearances in all competitions before securing a big money move to Real Madrid, where he has established himself as one of the world’s leading players in his position.
But things could have been very different for the Croatian had McCoist had his way.
The former striker revealed to talkSport how, while on a scouting mission for Walter Smith to take a look at defender Vedran Corluka, he returned to Ibrox urging the club to also sign his team-mate.
“Dinamo Zagreb were playing Hajduk Split and Walter sent me over to watch the game looking at the big boy Corluka,” McCoist said.
“So I went over to watch the game, Corluka was fine, I came back and Walter asked me how it all went.
“I said: ‘Yeah it’s a good team and Corluka is a good player, you’d take him all day’.
“But I also said: ‘I tell you right now, I don’t know how much money we’ve got in the bank account but there was a wee fella playing in the middle of the park, Luka Modric’.
“He just looked light-years ahead of everyone else on the pitch.
“I said: ‘Go and see him, and if you can get him gaffer he is unbelievable!’
“So anyway, Walter picked up the phone and then put it back down. He said: ‘Nah forget it’.
“It was just too much for us, I can’t remember the exact figure but he was too much for us.”
Modric would of course go on to sign for Spurs in a £16million deal, and has since gone on to win the Champions League four times with Madrid, reach the World Cup final with Croatia, and scoop the Ballon d’Or in 2018.
Rangers would also miss out on Corluka, with the defender going on to sign for Manchester City before also making the move to Tottenham in 2008.
