Luca Toni doesn’t need to think long about who the best signing in Serie A of 2025 is. The former top striker chose Luka Modric without hesitation, with the 40-year-old shaping AC Milan’s midfield this season. That has also impressed Toni and Sébastien Frey.
With so many high profile arrivals across Serie A, naming a single standout signing is not straightforward.
Milan alone added multiple headline names, bringing in Luka Modric alongside forwards and midfield reinforcements like Christopher Nkunku and Adrien Rabiot. Napoli, meanwhile, made a statement of intent by securing Noa Lang, Kevin De Bruyne and Rasmus Højlund, while Internazionale also moved decisively in the market, strengthening with players such as Manuel Akanji. On paper, each of those deals can be justified as a potential turning point for a club’s season, whether through goals, defensive stability, or depth for a long campaign that includes European commitments.
Yet in the eyes of former Italy striker Luca Toni, the debate has a clear winner. Speaking on a podcast, Toni pointed to Modric as the best signing of 2025, focusing less on age, resale value, or marketing impact and more on what Modric has brought to Milan on the pitch and in the dressing room. Toni’s logic is simple: elite quality does not disappear when a player reaches the later stages of his career. Instead, it often becomes more concentrated, expressed through decision making, positioning, tempo control, and the ability to deliver the right pass at the right moment under pressure.
Toni’s wider point is about the difference between a very good player and a serial winner. In his view, true champions can step into a new league and still compete with younger opponents because their game is built on intelligence and technical clarity rather than only physical power. That is why, even at 40, Modric can influence matches in ways that are immediately visible. He dictates rhythm, calms unstable phases, and helps teammates make better choices simply by being available in the right spaces and circulating possession with purpose. Toni even used an exaggerated image to underline how comfortable genuine greats can look at this level, suggesting that a champion can almost seem relaxed while everyone else is operating at full speed.
The move itself is part of what makes the story compelling for Toni. Modric did not choose the easiest path. As Toni framed it, Modric could have opted for a lucrative final chapter elsewhere, but instead selected a destination that required him to compete at the highest level, in a league where tactical discipline and midfield duels are unforgiving. In that sense, Toni sees the transfer as a statement of mentality as much as ability. It is a decision aligned with a player who still wants to be judged by performance rather than comfort.
That theme also appears in Toni’s comparison with De Bruyne’s switch to Napoli. While Toni acknowledges that De Bruyne also chose a demanding challenge, he suggests the impact at Napoli has been different. The contrast is not necessarily about quality, but about fit, role, and the specific needs of each team. Modric has stepped into Milan’s midfield as a shaping force, the type of player who can serve as a reference point for structure and coherence. In a squad with multiple new faces and high expectations, that can be invaluable.
Former goalkeeper Sébastien Frey echoed Toni’s assessment, highlighting the intangible weight that a player like Modric carries. Frey’s argument is built around status and standards: when you talk about Modric, you are talking about a champion, and champions sometimes choose to test themselves in a new environment even after building an enormous legacy elsewhere. From that perspective, Modric’s choice to come to Italy and to AC Milan is not merely another transfer, but an arrival that lifts the league’s profile while also raising the internal benchmark at the club. For Frey, there is also a simple pleasure in seeing a player of that pedigree still performing at a high level rather than fading quietly from the elite stage.
From a tactical standpoint, Modric’s value to Milan is easy to explain even without getting lost in formation details. Milan gain a midfielder who can receive under pressure, play forward quickly, and connect phases of play without forcing risky actions. He can help a team manage matches when momentum swings, allowing Milan to slow the game down, hold possession with intent, and choose the right moments to accelerate. In tight Serie A fixtures, where space is scarce and opponents are well drilled, that kind of control can decide outcomes as much as raw attacking talent.
There is also the developmental angle. When a squad contains younger midfielders and attackers, training every day with a player who has won at the highest level can accelerate learning in subtle ways. Movement off the ball, scanning before receiving, knowing when to take a foul, knowing when to play the simple pass and when to break a line: these habits often separate consistent title contenders from teams that fluctuate week to week. Even if a veteran is not asked to play every minute, his presence can still have outsized influence on collective performance.
So far, Modric’s measurable output in Serie A stands at 16 appearances, with 2 assists and 1 goal. Those numbers are respectable, but they do not fully capture why Toni and Frey are so emphatic. Their case is that Modric’s real impact lies in how Milan function with him: calmer build up, cleaner transitions, and a higher baseline of decision quality in midfield. In a season defined by aggressive transfer activity across the league, Toni’s verdict is that Modric represents the most meaningful addition because he changes how a top team plays, not just who scores the goals.
Updated: 10:33, 29 Dec 2025
