Will Croatia pardon Modric or put him behind bars?

Croatia captain Luka Modric has had a brilliant World Cup but is hated in his own country after he dramatically changed his testimonial against the country’s biggest football tycoon in a corruption case Zdravko Mamic.

Mamic, the former Dinamo Zagreb chief executive was once regarded as the most powerful man in Croatian football. He is certainly among its most divisive.

Mamic, who had contracts with many Croatian players, would provide financial support in return for a proportion of the players’ later earnings and a cut of the fee when they were transferred to another club.

His deal with Modric was something similar. In 2008, when the now Croatia captain moved to Tottenham, eighty percent of the 10.5 million euros Modric received went to Mamic and his family, as per sky sports report. Mamic was convicted of embezzlement and tax evasion and, in June, was sentenced to six-and-a-half years in prison. Having fled to Bosnia before the verdict, it remains to be seen whether he will ever serve it.

Modric was charged for lying while testifying after he said that he "could not remember" much of the detail and claimed that the clauses were already in place prior to his sale to Spurs.  In March, he was charged with perjury just ahead of the World Cup and could face five years in prison.

As Croatian journalist Bernard Jurisic explains, public feeling is mixed. "Perceptions of Modric changed from the moment that the strange business became apparent," he told Sky Sports.

Modric has been a definite hero for Croatia at this World Cup. He is the engine that runs the team. The diminutive midfielder, who came from a camp for the war refugees, is on the brink of creating history for his country. And thereby win a ticket to his own redemption.

As the charismatic playmaker faces France in the greatest match of his career on Sunday, what are his chances of redemption? Will a Cup-winning performance erase his moral deficit that upright Croatians have unhesitatingly bemoaned all these years? Will a goal or two against France make him a darling of the masses again?