‘Used to do little things’ – Defoe raves about ‘special’ former Spurs teammate

Jermain Defoe has lavished praise on Luka Modric, admitting that the Croat often produced ‘special’ pieces of skill during their time together at Spurs.

Defoe left Tottenham to join Portsmouth in January of 2008 before Modric joined the North London club from Dinamo Zagreb six months later.

The striker then returned to White Hart Lane for a second spell in 2009 and played alongside Modric for three and a half years before the midfielder moved to Real Madrid.

The Croatian international has arguably been the best midfielder in world football over the last decade and continues dictating matches despite being 36 years of age.

On his return to London to take on Chelsea in the first leg of the Champions League quarter-final this week, the former Spurs man pulled the strings for Real Madrid with typical fluency as Los Blancos overcame the Blues 3-1 on Wednesday.

Defoe admitted that it was little things like the weight of his passes that stood out with Modric.

The former Spurs striker told Rio Ferdinand Presents FIVE: “He (Modric) was special, he used to do little things.

“I remember a goal I scored against Portsmouth, he had the ball on his right foot, he turned to shoot and he just touched it to me with the outside of his left foot for me to finish.

“It was unbelievable, his weight of pass. He played it softly for me to play it first time, he was an unbelievable player.”

Spurs Web Opinion

There were some questioning when Spurs signed Modric if the Croat was too lightweight for the Premier League. Even though his quality on the ball was immediately apparent, it took the midfielder around 12 months to get used to English football before hitting the heights that he did.

The football that we played during the 2011/12 season when we had a midfield of Modric, Parker, Van der Vaart, Lennon and Bale, was the most entertaining Spurs side I have watched, arguably alongside the 2016/17 season under Pochettino.

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