The player Man Utd chose to sign instead of Modric

Karan Tejwani

• 14 Feb 2023 13:40 GMT
• 2 min read

Manchester United had the option to sign Luka Modric in 2012, but ended up signing a Borussia Dortmund star instead.

Modric was a fine player in his Premier League days when he was at Tottenham and was attracting interest from Europe’s top clubs, including Manchester United, who were gunning at the top end of the Premier League table.

Rio Ferdinand has now said that he was pushing for Manchester United to sign the Croatian, but they ended up signing Shinji Kagawa instead.

READ: Real Madrid give Luka Modric stunning contract ultimatum

At the time, Kagawa was doing well at Dortmund in the Bundesliga, but his time at Old Trafford didn’t go as planned and Manchester United may regret opting for him over Modric.

Man Utd signed Kagawa instead of Modric

Speaking on the Vibe with Five podcast, Ferdinand said: "Any player that was available or was coming up I used to think that I could somehow get into them. Even Thiago Alcantara at Liverpool, I spoke to him before he left Barcelona to go to Bayern Munich and that almost happened but we signed [Marouane] Fellaini instead.

"But Modric, I remember speaking to him, I said "Are you leaving [Tottenham]?" and he said, 'Yeah, I think I’m going to go' but he wasn’t sure at the time where he was going.

READ: Luka Modric could leave Real Madrid in summer

"I said, 'Listen, you’ve got to come to United, man' and he said, 'Yeah, listen, I want to be the first Croatian to play for Manchester United, I want to be that guy, can we make it happen?'

"But it didn’t happen. I spoke to David Gill and the manager [Sir Alex] at the time had already agreed with Shinji Kagawa I think it was – I think that was the year, I’m sure it was.

“Or they already had irons in the fire with another player and they did that deal and then Modric went to Madrid and the rest is history."

Modric has, of course, had a brilliant career, winning five Champions League titles and the Ballon d’Or in 2018 to become one of the greatest midfielders of this era.

Kagawa’s tenure at Manchester United wasn’t quite as good as he returned to Borussia Dortmund in 2014.