Luka Modric has credited Zinedine Zidane with giving him the confidence to fulfil his potential and claim a maiden Ballon d Or.
Modric was crowned the world s best player on Monday, ending the 10-year stranglehold of Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi on the prize.
The Croatia midfielder won three consecutive Champions League titles under Zidane before the 1998 Ballon d Or winner left in the wake of their most recent triumph in Kiev in May.
But Modric says a meeting with Zidane shortly after his arrival in the job in 2016 was key to his surge to the top of world football.
Here is something I will never forget: When Zinedine Zidane became Real Madrid coach, he called me into his office after training, Modric told France Football. He told me how he was seeing me as a player and what he was expecting from me.
He said I was a very important player for him. And he said that he saw me as a Ballon d Or winner one day.
When someone like Zidane, with his personality and his career, says that to you, it gives you a lot of confidence.
BALLON D OR 2018
— Real Madrid C.F. (@realmadrid)
I admired him and I respected him a lot when he was a player.
He saw me as someone like him, calm and a bit shy. He wanted me to open myself more. He made me a very important piece of the team when the team was playing very well.
These words from Zidane helped me to go further on the pitch.
