Bojan Krkić Pérez was born on the 28th of August 1990 and arrived at Barcelona at the age of nine from the small town of his birth, Linyola, Spain. Here he became top scorer in the history of Barcelona's youth system with 423 goals, his father, who had the same name as him, was a Serbia international player who finished his career at Mollerusa and was later a Barça coach. A quick striker with quite notable dribbling skills, it was said that he scored over 900 goals for various youth teams after joining the club, breaking Lionel Messi's record. The winger's Barça breakthrough came hot on the heels of that of Messi, three years his senior, and there were high hopes that he could go on to have a similar career to the Argentine. He is actually a fourth cousin of Messi, both are the great-great-great-grandchildren of Mariano Pérez Miralles and Teresa Llobrera Minguet. Under Frank Rijkaard he scored 10 league goals in his debut season and went on to to net 41 times in all competitions for the club, winning three league titles and two Champions Leagues. He was, at the time, the youngest Barcelona player ever to feature in a Champions League game, at 17 years and 22 days. On the 20th of October 2007 (at 17 years and 53 days), he made his first league start for Barcelona away to Villarreal and scored in the 25th minute. It was his first goal for the club's first team and it made him the youngest ever goalscorer for Barcelona in a league match. Bojan was also the second youngest player, after Zubieta, to debut for the senior Spanish national team and could have been the youngest but he had an illness before what would have been his first match. This was the kid who had smashed every goal scoring record in Barcelona’s academy and scored on his first league start, but on the day he was due to play his first game for Spain in Málaga in 2007, still only 17, he didn’t come out to warm up. His parents, aware something was wrong, clambered over the fence and headed down the tunnel to the dressing room, where Bojan had suffered an anxiety attack: He said, "I started to feel this powerful dizziness, overwhelmed, panicked. The press didn't understand why a 17-year-old Catalan boy was saying no. And it had nothing to do with political issues, I was a kid who needed space and time to understand what was going on. To say no was a decision that was nobody's fault. I felt I had to tell the truth. But the truth wasn't told when I missed my debut with the national team. It was said that I had gastroenteritis. I didn't say it, the Spanish FA said it. From the beginning, they didn’t tell the truth. A boy of 17 years does not have the strength or the voice to stand up and say it."
That evening, he left Málaga in a minibus and that summer had to pull out of the Spain squad for the Euros. He was taken to a psychologist by the name of Josep Monseny, who has guided him throughout his life, a man he says 'symbolises my process' and who helped him to manage his anxiety. He had 'begun to build' as he puts it, but was still only 17, on medication, working through his illness. The headlines, leaked, spoke simply of a refusal. "The people at the federation didn’t help; they exposed me, at a time when I was very weak." he says. However, he eventually fell down the pecking order under Pep Guardiola and left Camp Nou for Roma at the age of just 21 for a fee of €12 million. While there he scored seven goals in 37 appearances in 2011-12 and then spent the 2012-13 season on loan at Milan where he scored three goals in 27 games.. Following this temporary spell at Milan, he then made a bizarre return to Catalonia in 2013 and was immediately loaned out to Ajax with whom he helped win the Eredevisie title, not playing a single minute for Barça before leaving again, this time for Premier League side Stoke City. Stoke manager Mark Hughes said "Anyone who knows European football will be aware of him as a player and the fact that he sees his future at Stoke City is really exciting."
He stayed in England for five years but, hindered by injuries, found himself in and out of the team, and he ended his playing career at the age of only 32 after uneventful spells in Germany, the United States and Japan. Without a team since finishing his contract with Vissel Kobe, his last club, Bojan leaves the field of play with a total of 451 official matches played in seven different countries (Spain, England, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Japan and Canada). He has worn the colours of Barça, Roma, Milan, Ajax, Stoke City, Mainz, Alavés, Montreal and Vissel Kobe. Bojan said, "I would like to proudly announce that my time as a professional football player has come to an end. I am very grateful for everything I have experienced. Life is in stages and I feel that my time has come."
see also :- http://www.thefootballvoice.com/2024/04/footballs-nearly-men-saido-berahino.html
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