'Great players, great people' - Michael Dawson on Luka and our Croatian connection

Three Croatians - Luka Modric, Vedran Corluka and Niko Kranjcar - played a key role as we built towards Champions League qualification at the end of the 2000s.

All three began their careers at Dinamo Zagreb, our opponents in the UEFA Europa League round of 16 over two legs, the second of which takes place in Croatia on Thursday evening (5.55pm UK).

Just 10 appearances shy of 350 between them for the Club in all competitions, they were regulars as we finished fourth in the Premier League in 2009/10. Vedran featured 29 times in the Premier League that season, Luka 25 and Niko 24. However, only Luka played in that decisive, memorable victory against Manchester City at the Etihad on 8 May, 2010 as ‘Charlie’ and Niko were injured.

Moved centrally by Harry Redknapp after initially playing off the left, Luka played a huge role in the final lap of that season, not least back-to-back wins against Arsenal and Chelsea in a week after the crushing blow of the FA Cup semi-final loss against Portsmouth in April.

All three left us in 2012. Everyone knows Luka’s path since departing for Real Madrid - four-times Champions League winner, culminating in winning the Ballon d'Or, football’s greatest individual accolade, in 2018, and in doing so breaking a 10-year monopoly on the award from Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. Now 35, Luka has won 133 caps for Croatia, reached the World Cup Final in 2018 - where he was beaten by Hugo Lloris’ France - and played in five major tournaments.

Vedran had a spell on loan at Bayer Leverkusen in the second half of the 2011/12 season, before moving to Lokomotiv Moscow in 2012. He won the title in Russia in 2018 and is still going strong at 35. He’s also played in five major tournaments for Croatia, racking up 103 caps.

Niko moved to Dynamo Kiev in 2012. He returned to England and QPR in 2013, then had a spell in the USA with New York Cosmos and then in Scotland at Glasgow Rangers in 2018. He won 81 caps and played in Euro 2008 and Euro 2012.

In 2010/11, Luka, Vedran and Niko were joined by a fourth Croatian, goalkeeper Stipe Pletikosa, on loan from Sparktak Moscow. Capped 114 times by Croatia, Stipe played once for us in the League Cup against Arsenal.

With 324 appearances between 2005-2014, Michael Dawson was at the Club throughout each of the Croatians' careers at Spurs - here are his memories of them...

Luka Modric

160 appearances, 17 goals - 2008-12

Michael: “Luka is quite small in stature and you immediately wondered how he was going to adapt to the Premier League, but he’d been out on loan at an early age, dealt with all that physicality all his career and it was never a problem for him because he had so much ability. You watched him and thought, ‘this guy can play’. Look what he’s gone on to do, 35 now, still a regular at Real Madrid, an incredible career, and he was fantastic for us. As a player, a talent, a person, everyone took to him from minute one. We took him out as part of the group and got to know all about his character. From that moment, he was one of us. It couldn’t have been easy coming to a new country, playing in a new league, but he settled in really quickly. What a player. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him use his left foot, and you don’t need one when the outside of your right foot is that good! He’s lovely on the eye, takes the ball in dangerous areas and gets out of those positions. Look at the career he’s had, won everything there is to win. The numbers speak for themselves. I was fortunate enough to play with world-class players at Tottenham and for Luka to still be doing what he’s doing at 35, full credit to him."

Vedran Corluka

109 appearances, one goal – 2008-11

Michael: “Charlie is the most laid-back person in the world. He didn’t look quick, but one against one, he was unbelievable. He was a completely different character to Luka, they were really good mates on and off the pitch, inseparable! Charlie was a great character to have around the place. But laid-back, on the field, off the field, everything he did was laid-back! Another great guy, and an important guy to have around for the spirit of that squad. He’s still going strong as well at Lokomotiv Moscow.”

Niko Kranjcar

71 appearances, 11 goals - 2009-12

Michael: “Niko was a real talent, a flair player, another laid-back character, although different to Charlie. Charlie was always there in the mix, Niko was a little quieter, quite cool, kept out of it. On the pitch, the way he played, the way he carried himself, threading passes around, scoring goals, what a talent. Maybe we didn’t see the best of Niko, but he still scored some unbelievable goals for us. He had that natural ability, lovely on the eye. Stipe as well. All great lads. You talk about characters and being different in their own ways, but they all bought into the way we were as a group of players. They were all likable characters and a big part of the squad.”