The regeneration in Madrid squad is done impressively, they don't seem to have a transitional phase remembering they keep winning trophies while doing it. They will surely be lost their leadership in the midfield if Luka Modric chooses to retire either. The La Decima personnel will be gone one by one. I just didn't expect Kroos would retire before Modric remembering Modric is quite older than him.
The young players in Madrid squad are not prospects anymore, they have become the backbone of the team while the senior players are still there. This is the best pattern of regeneration in a big club I have ever seen. Luka Modric is giving full hand on Modric to decide his own future as a respect for his contributions and loyalty. He deserves it all due to his legacy at the club as one of the biggest legend.
It's really interesting to see that a team in their regeneration could do it so perfectly that it doesn't even appear like they had any lapsis to make up for at any point, I mean been able to nurture young players to the point of perfectly fitting in even while the top old players are still present is actually top notch because they don't even get to bother about been getting to buy players and all that as the team is in their best frame already.
The retirement of Kroos is actually going to be such that will be felt by the team because this moment, the team still wishes to have him, if it were possible they could do anything about it, it think they would, but then it appears they are have almost nothing they can do about it. Kroos is love by the entire Madrid team from the management to the fans and even team mates, they are all great ally's to him but it's just a normal occurrence that at a point a player gets to leave a team either by retirement or by choice of looking for a better path to advance their Careers just like in the case of mabppe.
Modric still have a season with Madrid according to a news I saw on a local media, he's not in his Young age anymore but because of his Legendary legacy at Madrid, it's earned him the privilege which you ha e mentioned which I agree to as real enough, as a loyal legend I'm the team I think granting him the privilege to deciding his own fate especially with retirement is very much deserving, I was even thinking he would retire before Kroos because he's older