Real Madrid will officially let Luka Modric go very soon. He will not play another game for the club, and his contract would technically expire as soon as the Club World Cup ends.
You can say he has already left the club, which would not be wrong, and it is basically confirmed by worldwide reports that Modric will be joining Milan next season.
Modric wore two kit numbers at Real Madrid. For the first half of his career in the capital of Spain, he had 19 written on the back of his jersey.
In the final half of it, he had the number 10, which became more and more prominent as his latter years became what they did - an era of exceptional performances one after another, defying age.
Now, Modric's kit number has been reported by journalists in Italy, and it is not what Real Madrid fans will expect.
According to La Gazzetta Dello Sport , the Croatian legend will wear number 14 at Milan next season.
It will be surprising to see Luka Modric without the number 10
Modric wore this number when he was at Tottenham Hotspur, and it was a number that brought him a lot of joy at the start of his career.
Fans expected him to get either the number 10, or at least the number 19, but both of those numbers have been taken by players already.
Number 10 is currently occupied by Rafael Leao, and number 19 is technically still Theo Hernandez's, although the French left-back is expected to move to Al-Hilal, and has already said his goodbyes.
Who knows, maybe Modric will end up taking number 19 instead of 14. That is just me thinking out loud.
Obviously, it is likely that Modric would want to go for a bit of a throwback and don the number 14 like he used to back in the day.
Regardless, it would be weird to see him not wear a white shirt next season. We all would get used to it, but deep down, no one really wanted to.