In the late 2010s, Bojan Krkic was considered to be if not more, then at least as talented as Leo Messi. Before Ansu Fati, it was Bojan who held the "youngest ever" records at Barcelona.
Yet, despite a meteoric rise, Krkic's career took a steep decline after his move away from Camp Nou. Here's his story.
Bojan made his senior debut for Barcelona at the age of 17 years and 19 days. Frank Rijkaard, the coach at that time, had a lot of confidence in the forward and described him as "a treasure".
The Spaniard would finish his first season at Camp Nou with 12 goals and six assists in 48 matches. At just 17 years.
The following season, though, Barcelona changed coaches. Pep Guardiola did not put as much faith in Bojan and believed that he needed to gain more experience with the reserves.
He would go on to play fewer matches from the start and thus have less of an impact in the squad. Eventually, this led to a conflict between the two, and in 2011, Krkic left Barca -- the club he joined when he was only nine years old -- to start a new adventure in Italy.
During his loan at Roma, Bojan had Luis Enrique as a coach. The Spaniard with Serbian roots had the manager's trust and was his most-used player, but he struggled with consistency. Krkic had a tough time adapting to the defensive Italian league and finished the year with just seven goals.
The 2012/13 season saw 22-year-old Bojan join Milan on loan but things didn't go much better for him at San Siro, finishing his spell there with just 3 goals in 27 games.
Then followed a mediocre loan at Ajax (32 games, 5 goals), and in 2014, he was permanently sold to Stoke City for just €1.8m.
The forward suffered an ACL injury in the first season in England and would never go on to replicate his Barca form. His spell at Stoke involved two loans -- to Alaves and Mainz -- and a season in the Championship.
The La Masia graduate said goodbye to European football in 2019, moving to Montreal Impact in the MLS. In 2021, he moved across the Pacific to join Andres Iniesta at Vissel Kobe.
However, the Japanese club terminated his contract earlier this month. Bojan also is an occasional columnist at Diario Sport.
What went wrong for Bojan? The forward did suffer a few serious injuries during his first years but it seems like his problems were more on the psychological side -- Krkic could not cope with the pressure and high expectations.
Bojan was called up by Spain in 2008 but he pulled out due to a panic attack. He also declined the invitation to play at the 2008 Euros due to similar reasons. The Spaniard experienced similar issues during his time in Italy and the Netherlands.
If anything, Bojan's story goes to prove that football is much more than talent and physical attributes.
As difficult as it may be to believe, the best spell of his career was his early years at Barca. After all, he left the club with 41 goals and 19 assists in 163 matches and 10 trophies in the bag.
