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Most 40-year-olds are content with a weekend five-a-side match and complaining about their knees. Luka Modric is preparing to dismantle England’s World Cup campaign.
The Croatian midfielder, who turned 40 in September 2025, is set to face England in a group-stage match at the 2026 FIFA World Cup in Dallas. Croatia knocked England out of the 2018 World Cup semi-finals. Now Modric gets one more crack at it.
The last dance, with a crypto twist
This is widely expected to be Modric’s final World Cup. After departing Real Madrid, he joined AC Milan. The move kept him at the highest level of European football, but the 2026 World Cup appears to be the closing chapter.
On April 9, 2026, Modric was appointed as the global brand ambassador for CoinW, a crypto trading platform. The timing landed squarely in the buildup to the World Cup when eyeballs on the Croatian captain would be at their peak.
The $MODRIC meme token and Solana speculation
A Solana-based token called $MODRIC launched around October 2025, and by early June 2026, it had reached a market cap of approximately $100K. Trading volume reportedly surged around the same period.
Crypto’s growing footprint in the World Cup
The 2026 FIFA World Cup features partnerships with crypto sponsors, including Kraken, one of the larger US-based exchanges. This marks a significant step in crypto’s integration into mainstream sports sponsorship at the highest level.
The collapse of FTX’s naming rights deal with the Miami Heat arena remains a cautionary tale that the industry hasn’t fully outrun.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
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