Croatia defender Dejan Lovren believes Luka Modric never gets the credit he deserves and would win the Ballon d'Or if he played for Spain or Germany.
Modric has been one of the stars of the World Cup so far, scoring in each of his opening two games as Croatia have stormed to the top of Group D.
His second strike, a superb, bending effort from 25 yards, helped them to a 3-0 victory over Argentina and compounded the misery for Lionel Messi, a five-time winner of football's most prestigious individual prize.
Modric has never even made the top three.
"It is a real pleasure to play with Luka Modric, who is one of the best players in the world right now," Lovren said at Croatia's training base in Roshchino today.
"Modric would probably be getting more attention than he is right now if he was a German or Spanish player. He would maybe even be a Ballon d'Or winner.
"But because we are a smaller country, he does get less attention than he deserves. We are all football lovers and we know Modric is an incredible player."
"But we must also think about the fact we should not be playing the players who have yellow cards. That's also our concern we need to keep in mind."