Luka Modrić, Golden Ball Award and top non diving player

We celebrate Luka Modrić’s award as the best player in the 2018 World Cup, not only because of his skills, drive and leadership but because he served as a perfect example of a high quality, successful player who also embraced the values of honour and honesty.

From the point of view of diving, a way to measure honesty on the field is by identifying consistent non-diving behaviour. Counting the amount of time players are on the field without diving is the best signal to do this. During the World Cup, about 43% of players didn't dive at all. Some of them played only a few minutes, others played a couple of matches. Very few played the 7 matches of the World Cup without a single dive, and the one who payed the most minutes was Modrić.

Thanks Luka for being an example of excellence!

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Note: playing times are not 100% exact, as stoppage time was not taken into account.

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Updated Sept 25th, 2018

After receiving the Golden Ball at the World Cup, Luka Modrić went on to win UEFA Men’s Player of the Year and the Best FIFA Men’s Player. We celebrate you even more!

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Updated Aug 15th, 2019

After tracking diving behavior in the 2019 Women's World Cup we saw Luka Modrić being the player who played the most minutes in either World Cups without diving.

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Header photo by Светлана Бекетова