Agent reveals how Dinamo Zagreb sold Modric to Spurs

Zdravko Mamic, the former chief executive of Dynamo Zagreb is currently a wanted man in his home country of Croatia for tax evasion along with allegedly syphoning money from the club. He is currently living in Bosnia who have so far refused to extradite him.

However, while Mamic was at Dinamo, he was apparently great at negotiating deals, and agent Milan Martinovic has asked people not to forget that. Martinovic insisted Mamic was one of the best football administrators in Europe.

Citing an example, he revealed that Luka Modric could have left to join Valencia for a lower fee six months before he joined Spurs but that Mamic pulled the plug on the deal knowing he can get more for the midfielder.

Speaking to Croatian publication Dnes, Martinovič said, “This is the strategy of boss Zdravko Mamić, one of the best football managers in Europe. He has a clear vision of how to create a team for youth. He has the intuition of doing business.

“Luka Modric, I’ll tell you how he sold him to Tottenham. I came after him in January 2008 for Valencia.

“I told Zdravko ‘they offer €15m, you will not get more’. and he? He said ‘Milan, not yet. We’ll sell him for twenty in half a year.’ He had a belief. Tottenham happened.”

It turned out that Spurs still got a great deal as Modric was outstanding in his time at North London and was eventually sold to Real Madrid for a much higher fee.

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