And when it really happened, when I was holding the Golden Ball in my hands, at that moment, all I felt was sadness.

This might have been the happiest moment of my career, but it wasn’t, Luka Modric recalls in his autobiography ‘My Game’, which can be found at newsstands across Croatia.

We lost the World Cup finals and still in a mess from the match, my mind was just thinking – it’s over.

While I was waiting on the lawn for an official speaker to call me to the podium, I tried not to look at that other goblet. I failed. My view simply escaped to the “World Champions trophy”. We really thought we can take it home to Croatia.

At that moment, I was experiencing great disappointment in the rain-soaked Moscow.

All that was going through my mind was that we lost the trophy that was so close.

After all the struggles and struggles, it slipped out of our hands.

In a split second, it went through my head how it would be to be summoned on the podium and handed over the Cup, to lift it up in the air with my teammates and shout from our heels toward our fans: “Goooooooo, Croatia!” What luck would it be…

Before I got off the podium, now more aware that I was named Mundial’s best player, a powerful remembrance flashed through my mind about my grandpa Luka.

How happy and proud he would have been if he had been able to experience the realization of my dreams.

I was six when the Chetniks recklessly killed him not far from home.

I couldn’t imagine that murder and loss then, and I can’t even today.

Short he was a part of my life, but long enough to leave a deep trace of family love, affection and loyalty in me.

This is the excerpt from the first chapter of autobiography of the world’s best footballer, Real Madrid star and Croatian national team captain Luka Modric, called “My Game”.