But as the team advanced in the World Cup, the court case faded into the background. Mr. Modric, who was allowed to play because he has not yet been convicted, has been one of the top performers at this year’s tournament, and his damaged reputation in the country has been largely rehabilitated.

“Modric is the best player Croatia ever had,” said Mr. Burum. “The trial will do its job, but most of the people love him. He is a true captain right now.”

Soccer in Croatia is so deeply intertwined in the culture, the politics and the war that ravaged the country in the 1990s that the game can be used as a marker for some of the most important moments in recent Croatian history.

In 1990, Yugoslavia was unraveling and the ethnic tensions between the country’s Croats and Serbs, which the state had kept tamped down, were on full display during a match of rival clubs Red Star Belgrade and Dinamo Zagreb. Before the first whistle, rioting broke out at the stadium in Zagreb.

While the match has often been erroneously cited as the first battle of the Croatian war of independence, Mr. Lalic said it did play an important psychological role.

“Yugoslavia stopped existing when the Dinamo-Red Star riot took place,” he said. “If we can’t play football anymore and be in the same terraces anymore, it was impossible to live together anymore.”