Germany's 1990 World Cup-winning captain Lothar Matthaus yesterday hailed Croatia's Real Madrid midfielder Luka Modric for winning the Ballon d'Or, thus ending the decade-long hold of Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi on Europe's best player award. Matthaus, 57, a Ballon d'Or (1990) and FIFA World Player of the Year (1991) winner himself, said he was happy that a team player like Modric won individual awards this year.

Modric, 33, won his third successive Champions League in May before helping Croatia to a first World Cup final in Russia. Earlier, he was named best male player at the Best FIFA Football Awards "Modric is a different player as compared to Messi and Ronaldo. The Croatian is a team player while the other two more often play for themselves. Mordic is a captain of the Croatia team and he is a leader in a different way to the Argentine or the Portuguese," said Matthaus during a BVB Evonik Football School event in association with Indo-German Chamber of Commerce and Bundesliga team Borrussia Dortmund at Cooperage yesterday. "Modric deserves to win the Ballon d'Or ahead of the two. He is not only a team player, but also a great player. He is a nice guy. I like a player who always gives his best for the team. And now he's got the best player award. I think it's a good decision."