Rakitic proud of 'brother' Modric's Golden Ball award

Ivan Rakitic put club rivalries to one side to honour his Croatia team-mate Luka Modric in the aftermath of Croatia's World Cup final defeat to France.

Modric was awarded the Golden Ball as the tournament's best player, and Rakitic shared an image of the two together with the prize on his Instagram account after the 4-2 loss in Moscow.

Rakitic, whose attentions will soon turn to Barcelona's campaign for back-to-back LaLiga titles at the expense of Modric's Real Madrid, paid tribute to his country's 32-year-old talisman.

"Brother Luka Modric, you do not know how proud I am!" said Rakitic.

"All deserved, we celebrate with our family and all Croats!

"Nothing more beautiful than to be Croatia."

Brate @lukamodric10 , neznas koliko se ponosim tobom.! Sve zasluzeno, idemo slavit sa nasom obitelji i svim hrvatima.! NISTA LIJEPSE NEGO BIT HRVAT! #iznadsvihhrvatska #budiponosan

A post shared by Ivan Rakitic (@ivanrakitic) on Jul 15, 2018 at 11:56am PDT