Zagreb (Croatia), Dec 27 (IANS): The best football player in the world Luka Modric got his first Croatian Sportsman of the Year award while discus thrower Sandra Perkovic won her seventh Croatian Sportswoman of the Year title.

Croatian sports daily newspaper Sportske Novosti was handing out the awards for the best man, woman and team for men and women for the 67th year in a row and this time the jury didn't have an easy task with a group of world and European champions among the candidates.

However, the majority of the votes from 322 sports journalists that took part in the process went to the best footballer of the year and the discus queen who won the European champion title in 2018 for the fifth time in a row, reports Xinhua news agency.

Modric and Perkovic got 299 and 284 votes respectively.

"I am a faithful reader of Sportske novosti since my childhood and I know how prestigious this title is and how hard is to get it because Croatia has so many great sportsmen. It is a really great honour for me to be voted as the best," Luka Modric said on Wednesday after he received one more personal award this year.

Modric won the Golden Ball award as the best player of the World Cup in Russia despite the fact that Croatia lost the final against France, followed by UEFA and FIFA awards for the best player and, to top it all, he became the first Croatian to win the Golden Ball by France Football.