37 games, 2,864 minutes: what Milan are re-signing
The headline number is Modrić's age — he turns 41 on 9 September — but the number that actually justifies the deal is his workload.
The Croatian played 37 games for Milan across the 2025-26 season, scoring two goals and providing three assists in 2,864 minutes. That tally would have been higher had a fractured cheekbone, suffered challenging for a header in April, not ruled him out for roughly two matches down the stretch.
This was not a ceremonial signing kept on the bench for the crowd. Earlier in the campaign he had started 32 of Milan's 34 Serie A matches, racking up more league minutes than in any of his final five seasons at Real Madrid. For a player his age, availability like that is the whole argument.
The wider CV frames why Milan want to hold on. Modrić arrived last summer as a free agent after 13 seasons and 597 games at Real Madrid, where he became the club's most decorated player of all time — six Champions Leagues, four LaLiga titles, and the 2018 Ballon d'Or, the first won by someone other than Messi or Ronaldo since 2007. He still captains Croatia, where his cap record now sits above 200, the most of any player in the nation's history.
The option Milan let lapse, and the Modric new Milan contract replacing it
The mechanics here are worth spelling out, because the situation has shifted since the spring.
When Modrić signed on 14 July 2025, the deal ran to 30 June 2026 with a club option to extend a further year, to June 2027. Back in April, reports had him simply activating that 12-month extension clause. That is not how it played out.
Per reporting compiled from La Gazzetta dello Sport and Croatian outlet Sportske Novosti, Milan did not exercise the renewal option. His contract expired on 30 June, and what is now on the table is a fresh one-year agreement rather than an automatic rollover.
The distinction changes who holds the cards. An unexercised option means the club had to go back and actively re-recruit a player who was, briefly, a free agent again. That is precisely what happened:
- Owner Gerry Cardinale contacted Modrić directly to tell him the club wanted him back.
- Ruben Amorim called him too — the new coach has said publicly he has spoken with Modrić twice and would speak again if needed.
- Club figure Zlatko Boban's old comrade Zvonimir Ibrahimović — rather, Zlatan Ibrahimović, in his executive role — was also reported to be in contact.
Amorim's pitch, a daughter at San Siro, and the Madrid door left ajar
Two things appear to be tipping Modrić toward yes, and neither is money.
The first is the courtship itself. Sky Sport Italia framed the "intensive" lobbying from directors and Amorim as the decisive factor in convincing Modrić to continue the experiment. He has never hidden that Milan was a boyhood club — he grew up supporting the Rossoneri during the era when Zvonimir Boban was in the squad — so the emotional pull was already there for the recruiters to lean on.
The second is closer to home, literally. Reporting notes that his daughter Ema plays for Milan's U-13 team, giving the family a reason to keep San Siro as the base regardless of what else is available.
And there is an alternative. Modrić is aware he could return to Real Madrid, and that option has not fully closed. But every current thread says the same thing: Milan has consistently been his priority, and there is no indication he will change his mind. He would be happy to stay.
The delay is circumstance, not doubt. Modrić was focused on Croatia's 2026 World Cup campaign and is only now processing the disappointment of an early exit under national coach Zlatko Dalić, who has made clear he still wants the captain in the international fold. Modrić did not return to Zagreb with the rest of the squad afterward, instead taking family holiday time. The read across reports is that he is heavily leaning toward giving the all-clear.
What still has to happen
Nothing is signed. That is the honest caveat under all of this.
If Modrić does approve terms, the cleanest signal will be geographic: he would join the squad for Milan's pre-season tour of Australia, which starts 26 July. Miss that, and the deal is slower than the reporting suggests; make it, and the paperwork has effectively cleared.
For Milan, the calculus is straightforward even if the negotiation was not. Amorim is walking into a reshaped squad, and a one-year bet on a player who just posted his heaviest league minutes in half a decade is a low-risk way to keep experience and standards in the building while younger midfielders find their level around him. The downside is bounded by the length of the deal; the upside is a former Ballon d'Or winner still capable of dictating tempo in Serie A.
Here is the frame that makes this more than a routine renewal. If the Modric new Milan contract is finalized on a one-year term, it carries him past his 41st birthday and toward a career close on his own terms — at a club he supported as a boy, at an iconic venue, with his daughter in the youth setup. Careers at the elite level do not usually get to end this tidily.
The last box left to tick is Modrić's own signature. Every other party has already said yes.
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