Footballer Bojan Krkić, perhaps considered the world’s first new lionel fair, is retiring.
Much was expected of Bojan Krkić, when the beginning of his career was better than even Lionel Messi’s. PDO
- The former superjunnu ends his career.
- The pressure was too much for the anxious teenage star.
- The winger spent the last years in Japan.
Do you remember by Bojan Krkić? Helmen from FC Barcelona’s famous academy, from which they graduated a little earlier than him, for example Lionel Messi, Xavi Hernandez, Andrés Iniesta, Sergio Busquets, Carles Puyol, Cesc Fabregas, Pedro and many other world stars?
The winger, who will turn 33 in August, has now decided to hang up the studs. Despite huge expectations, the football career did not turn out to be as glamorous as that of the mentioned players.
If there was one thing that plagued Bojan’s career development, it was timing. Barcelona gave the academy talent a lot of responsibility at the same time that the team’s undisputed number one star Lionel Messi led Blaugrana towards the conquest of Europe.
In the 2007–2008 season, Messi and Bojan did not win the Champions League yet, but both scored more than ten goals during the season. Bojan with much less playing time.
For a while, Bojan was even ahead of Messi’s development. At the age of 17, he became FC Barcelona’s youngest goalscorer in the Champions League and the Premier League. In the early stages of his career, he made more power than the Argentinian Kirppu, and in Spain they rejoiced in the luck that they, too, are getting their own barb-like winger.
The following year, Barcelona reached the stars and won the Champions League and La Liga. Messi scored 38 goals during the season and Thierry Henry’s mixed Samuel Eto’on left behind Bojan 10. Even the reading was born with little responsibility.
Messi was already a superstar, and it was believed that Bojanic, who was a few years younger, would rise to the same level.
A wish became a curse.
A traitor?
Bojan, who describes himself as an introvert, got to experience the ugly side of stardom. The teenage boy no longer had privacy. PDO
At no point did Bojan ask to be compared to his little cousin Messi. The spotlights of Camp Nou and Catalonia dazzled more after each top performance, and soon the house of cards was ready to collapse.
Bojan received more pressure from the Spanish national team, who were ready to start their dynasty that lasted from 2008 to 2012. Bojan received a crushing avalanche of criticism when he refused to go to the 2008 European Championships. The player who appealed to fatigue was called lazy and a traitor.
Spain won the European Championship, which only added fuel to the flames. The player, who was on the threshold of adulthood, remained in the teeth of fans and the Spanish media.
It wasn’t until ten years later that Bojan said that he suffered from anxiety as a teenager, and the holiday trip before the European Championships was just a way to get a break from stardom, which was accompanied by numerous headlines, lack of privacy, pressure and hiding from fans.
From the point of view of national team games, the top-talented Bojan could not have gotten a better timing to be a player in his twenties, when Spain won two EC titles and one world championship during his lifetime.
But in the end, Bojan played only one match for the A national team in his career: the 2008 European Championship qualifier against Armenia. After the summer of 2010, there were constant reminders of the national team’s success, when there were many EC and WC winners in the Barcelona dressing room.
Out of Barcelona
There was rarely room for Bojan in the composition of the team full of legends. PDO
The timing was certainly not the best possible for Bojan in Barcelona. Messi, who played the same position, was always a better choice to open, as were world stars such as Henry, Eto’o, Zlatan Ibrahimović and David Villa.
Being on the bench weakened Bojan’s shares. In the summer of 2011, Barcelona had the last chance to get a transfer fee for the player, and the Spaniard ended up with 15 million euros to AS Roma. Bojan played a season in Rome and then ended up on loan to AC Milan.
In 2013, Bojan returned to his parent club only to be loaned to Ajax that same summer.
Bojan was not allowed to settle down, as he toured in seven different teams between 2013 and 2021. Only at Premier League Stoke did he manage to return to his own level for a short while. But bad luck struck again when he suffered a serious knee ligament injury and was given no further opportunities at the British club.
The story continues after the picture.
With several loan spells, Bojan became a roving player on European pitches and a bench consumer. PDO
Bojan found the last club of his career in the Japanese premier league, where he spent two seasons alongside his friend Iniesta from Barcelona.
Bojan, who has matured, said in an interview with the Guardian in 2018 that he enjoyed his post-Barcelona years. Bojan’s successful years were at the beginning of his career, but he felt happiest at Stoke and as a loan player for smaller clubs.
– Trophies are not the most important thing, but experiences, how you have lived, what you hold in your heart, what you know and how you live. No one can take them away from you. And everyone who has spoken ill of you, they will forget. Then all that remains is me, pride and all the unique moments I got to experience, Bojan said in 2018.
– I am proud of my career as a footballer and how I used it.
Bojan’s next career step may surprise you. He launched a new mountain bike brand with Iniesta and plans to compete in the Games himself.
The event celebrating the end of Bojan’s career was organized by FC Barcelona, whose 423 goal record at the Academy in La Masia has still not been broken by anyone.
The emotional farewell ended with applause and the FC Barcelona boss By Joan Laporta for a hug.
The highly experienced Bojan ended his career to applause at Barcelona’s Camp Nou. PDO