Croatia have been drawn against England, Panama and Ghana in Group F — a group they will approach with the experience of reaching the final in Russia 2018 and the semi-finals in Qatar 2022 still fresh in the collective memory.
Croatia's overall World Cup record stands at 30 matches: 13 wins, 8 draws and 9 defeats, with their best result coming in France 1998, when David Šuker's tournament-topping goals helped secure a third-place finish after victory over the Netherlands.
For Modrić personally, this represents his fifth World Cup and his 18th match at the tournament — more than half of all the World Cup matches Croatia have ever played.
His club situation adds weight to the occasion. Modrić joined AC Milan as a free agent in the summer of 2024 on a one-year deal with an option for a further season, and made an immediate impact, starting 32 of Milan's first 34 Serie A matches before fracturing his cheekbone in a collision with Manuel Locatelli in April, requiring surgery that ended his season early.
AC Milan's 2-1 defeat to Cagliari on the final day of the season cost the club Champions League qualification — a result that, according to multiple Italian outlets, has fundamentally altered Modrić's calculus regarding his option to extend. According to transfer journalist Nicolò Schira, Modrić is "oriented to announce" his retirement from professional football once Croatia's World Cup campaign concludes.
The broader picture at Milan complicates any decision regardless. The club currently has no permanent head coach, sporting director, technical director or chief executive in place, following the departure of Massimiliano Allegri — with whom Modrić had a close working relationship — and a wider institutional overhaul. La Gazzetta dello Sport's Marco Guidi grouped Modrić alongside Rafael Leão among players whose Milan futures remain genuinely uncertain.
According to AS, should Modrić decide to retire from playing altogether, there is an expectation that Real Madrid — where he spent thirteen seasons and won six Champions League titles — would offer him a role in a director capacity, with both the club and the player reportedly regarding the Bernabéu as his natural home regardless of how his playing career ends.
La Gazzetta also reports that Modrić has settled happily in Milan, where his daughter has joined the club's youth academy, and that a "redemption year" in the Europa League under the idolised memory of Zvonimir Boban had represented part of the appeal of staying — the one trophy with Milan that has so far eluded him remaining unwon.
Whatever happens with Milan, Modrić has made clear through intermediaries that this World Cup will be his last as a Croatia international, regardless of his club future. Croatia's opening match represents not just the start of another tournament campaign, but very possibly the closing notes of one of the most decorated midfield careers in the history of the European game.