As the CROAT flies high
This city boy, and dedicated football aficionado was in Sochi. He was lucky enough to meet Luka Modric and even got the footie great to take a selfie.
A fan ID in hand, and the footie anthem resounding, city businessman Ravi Rajendran was looking forward to getting to the Fan Parks and the stadiums in Russia. A die-hard and passionate football fan, armed with a ticket to the Russia-Croatia quarterfinal in Sochi and the England-Croatia semi-finals in Moscow on Wednesday, the Harvard Business School alumni was thrilled when his already amazing FIFA World Cup 2018 in Russia got even better. What this crazy Lionel Messi and Barcelona fan did not envision was that he would come close to touching distance of the big names of the beautiful game.
Touted to be among the surprise teams that might clinch the title… with their exceptional playmaker and his fast-paced runs into the opposition’s rock solid defence, Ravi had a chance meeting with the Croatian team and their captain Luka Modric before their quarterfinal match.
As luck and destiny came together, Rajendran checked into a five star resort at Sochi, and sauntered down to the bar a day before the Croatia-Russia quarterfinal, and to his shock and awe, Real Madrid midfielder and Croatian super star Luka Modric was sitting at the restaurant. And the Croatian team was also staying at the same hotel! Yet, that’s not the clincher, the Bengaluru huduga also got the player with the most Man of the Match awards in 2018, to offer to take a few selfies with Ravi, where Modric held the phone, and went click-click. “I just got here on Thursday and I saw Luka in the hotel’s restaurant. I was thrilled! I walked up to ask him for a photograph, and we looked around for someone to take a nice long shot, but at that moment, no one was around, so I stood perplexed and my helplessness showed as Luka graciously offered, ‘Let me take it,’ and he went onto to click a few selfies as I stood unable to move, totally dumbstruck.”
Rajendran also saw the Croatian team having lunch at the restaurant. Approachable and warm… needless to say, Croatia has a die-hard fan in the Ooru lad now. “I spoke briefly to Modric. I was surprised at how fluently he spoke English. Luka is a super friendly guy and so down-to-earth. I think they had just gotten back from training, and he was chilling and texting on his phone.”
And if that was any football fans ultimate fantasy, then what followed was even more surreal, as the whole team walked into the restaurant right after, and Ravi met Barcelona midfielder Ivan Rakitic, who scored the nerve-wracking final penalty that saw Croatia into the semi-finals, and clicked a picture with him. He even met and took photographs with Marcelo Brozovic, who netted in the penalty shootout, and Kovacic, whose miss, thankfully did not cost Croatia too much, along with the passionate coach Dalic.
“The coach asked an assistant to take our photograph, which I thought was so nice. I told him that I’m from India and that I’ll be at the stadium cheering for Croatia! I wished them well and even said that I would be rooting for Croatia to win the cup! Very warm and nice guy! It was an insane experience,” says Ravi, still reeling from meeting Luka and the team. The die-hard football fanatic had earlier met the (former) Argentinan team in the US, former French great Robert Pires, Brazilian footballer Kaka and he feels blessed. “Hope my luck never runs out!” he wishes, fingers-crossed.