Real Madrid midfielder Luka Modric takes a stand against the war after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last week.

Real Madrid midfielder Luka Modric has called on Russia to stop invading Ukraine because war is a terrible thing for everyone, especially innocent people. The 37-year-old midfielder experienced a war in the 1990s, according to Marca on Monday. 

Modric was born in Croatia in 1985, which was still part of Yugoslavia at the time. But his family was force to emigrate from his hometown of Zadar at the start of the 1991 Croatian War of Independence. Where his grandfather died in that war and their family home was destroy destroy.

Modric’s wartime childhood led him to live in a local lodge. Before joining NK Zadar at the age of 11 and joining Dinamo Zagreb after that, the Croat midfielder does not want to see what happened to him in the past again. 

‘I grew up during the war and I don’t need it like everyone else. We have to stop this nonsense that innocent people die. We need peace.’#Stop the war, Modric tweeted.

His family were forced to flee from their home in Zadar at the start of the Croatian War of Independence in 1991, with his grandfather killed, and their family home destroyed.

The horror of war meant Modric spent a large part his childhood living in a local hotel, before joining NK Zadar aged 11, and moving on to Dinamo Zagreb as a teenager.