Luka Modric will stay at Milan for the 2026-27 season, with the club and the player agreeing to trigger the one-year option in his contract, according to La Gazzetta dello Sport.
Modric was one of the few certainties Milan had going into a summer of upheaval. Tare has gone as sporting director, Allegri is no longer the coach, and the squad is being rebuilt around a new project. Keeping a 40-year-old midfielder through all of that says something about how central he has become, both on the pitch and in the dressing room.
The paperwork isn't quite finished. Gazzetta report it will take at least another 48 hours, but everything is ready to go, including the social media announcement. Modric is still on holiday, and rather than stop in Milan he will fly straight to join the squad, who leave on Sunday for their pre-season base in Perth. His reintegration will be managed by Amorim and his staff, who will assess where he is physically. His last competitive appearance was on July 3 against Portugal.
The question a Milan fan asks first is simple: how much did the club load onto him last season, and can he do it again? The answer is that his debut year in Italy was heavier than the numbers suggest. Modric played 2,816 minutes, and he only missed the 3,000 mark because a fractured cheekbone in late April cut his season short. To put that in context, he has passed 3,000 league minutes just once in 25 domestic seasons, back in 2011-12 with Tottenham. Nobody expects a repeat of that workload at 41, the age he turns on September 9.
So the role changes. Gazzetta frame it as a different kind of sacrifice, leaning more on his leadership and less on his legs, still a driving presence without carrying the same minutes. That fits a squad that needs him as a reference point more than a workhorse.
The reasons he stayed are worth spelling out. There is the pull of unfinished business, after Milan missed out on the Champions League he didn't want that to be how it ended. The Europa League is a trophy he has never won, and he hasn't played in the competition since those two group games with Spurs in 2011-12. His family have settled well in Milan, with daughter Ema in the club's youth setup. And there was loyalty in the decision too. Modric turned down other options, including a return to Dinamo Zagreb where his career began, and chose to stay even as Tare and Allegri, the men partly behind his arrival, left the building.
The terms are unchanged: €3.5m, the same as his first year. He will end his international career after Croatia's Nations League tie against Spain in Split on October 6, and from that point Milan will have him to themselves.
For a club rebuilding almost everything else, holding on to the calmest head in the midfield is the one decision that needed no explaining.