By Pearse McLaughlin
Bojan Krkić Pérez or as he was simply known as Bojan, has announced his immediate retirement from professional football at the age of just 32 years old. Once dubbed the next Messi and coming through the youth ranks at La Masia his career never lived up to expectations and retires following his release from Vissel Kobe in the J-League 1.
An emotional Bojan announces his retirement from professional football on the 23rd of March 2023, back where it all started at the Nou Camp.
"I tried out for Barça at the age of eight and now, at the age of 32, after many years, experiences and personal learning, 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."
Bojan Krkić Pérez was born on the 28th of August 1990, stands at 5 ft 7 (170cm) with a lean body type and was diminutive in stature. With his small frame he was a carbon copy of Lionel Messi one of the greatest the world has ever seen to grace the football pitch, the fact that he came through the same youth system as Messi and only a few years apart FC Barcelona thought they hut the jackpot. Like Messi, he could play anywhere across the front line but is predominantly known as a striker.
Bojan was the top goal scorer in the history of the club’s youth system with 423 goals outscoring one Lionel Messi. His father, his namesake, was a Serbia international player who finished his career at Mollerusa. Later he was a Barça coach. Bojan is the second youngest player, after Zubieta, to debut for the senior Spanish national team. He could have been the youngest, but he had an illness before what would have been his first match.
Bojan Krkic was part of arguably one of the greatest sides Barcelona and the world has ever seen under the tutelage of Pep Guardiola from 2007-2011. During his trophy ladened spell at his boyhood club he won 3 La Liga titles, 2 UEFA Champions League, 2 Spanish Super Cup, 1 Copa Del Rey, 1 European Super Cup, and 1 World Club Championship. Under Guardiola, Bojan just couldn’t break into the first team as a wide player or his natural position as a striker with the likes of Messi, Eto’o, Henry, David Villa, Pedro, Afellay, Ibrahimovic all ahead of him in the pecking order. His prolific form at youth level couldn’t be translated into the first team as he wasn’t a regular starter and each passing season his influence was slowly diminishing.
During his 4-year spell in the Barcelona first team, he played a total of 166 matches with a combined total of 7,205 minutes of action but only managed a mere 41 goals. Bojan was averaging just over 10 goals a season which isn’t good enough for someone dubbed the next Messi.
During his impressive start to life in the first team at FC Barcelona, he did manage to win a senior appearance for the Spanish National side at just the age of 18 years old. n his breakthrough season, he netted ten league goals, a record for a goal scorer in his debut campaign. The fact that he hasn't scored that many in any league since shows his regression. Bojan had the chance to add to his solitary cap but turned down the opportunity at just 17 years old to represent Spain at Euro 2008, which Spain won and would have been another major honour to add to the collection.
Bojan turned down the chance to represent Spain at Euro 2008 due to fatigue.
"I know what it is I'm missing out on, but I've reached a point where I'm very tired. At no point did I ever say 'no' to the Spanish team. On the other hand, I want to be honest with the manager, the Spanish Football Federation and with myself."
A 2-year loan move to the Serie A giants AS Roma would follow in hope, he would secure more gametime and really kick on in his career and show Barcelona what they were missing. But that never really happened and in his first season with Roma he amassed 33 appearances and scored just the 7 goals. Roma was unimpressed with this return and subsequently loaned him to AC Milan for the 2012/13 season where he somehow got worse and scored just 3 goals across 27 appearances. AS Roma didn’t exercise their option to make the transfer permanent and pay the additional cost of 28 million euros on top of the 12-million-euro loan fee they already paid to secure the services of Bojan.
Following the 2012/13 season in Italy, Bojan returned to his former club FC Barcelona for a fee of 13 million euros, but Barca were keen to offload him on loan to guarantee Bojan more playing time.
For the 2013/14 season Ajax announced the signing of Bojan on a one-year loan deal, with an option to extend the loan deal for a second year. During his spell at Ajax, Bojan did collect winners’ medals for the Dutch Super Cup and the Eredivisie title which was Ajax’s fourth consecutive title to add to his impressive trophy haul. Bojan did suffer a setback during his time at Ajax, after he suffered a hamstring injury on the 29th of September 2012, he missed a total of 8 weeks of action, and this really hampered his progress. Having scored just 5 goals in 32 appearances Ajax declined to extend their loan agreement with Barcelona.
The world was shocked when FC Barcelona announced the sale of Bojan Krkic to Stoke City in the English Premier League for a measly fee of 1.8 million euros. The shock was the fact that Barca just 12 months prior exercised their but back clause for 13 million euros and sell him for just 1.8 million euros. Also, is the fact that Stoke City were known for been a big physical side who’d kick lumps out of you under the guardianship of Tony Pulis. With Mark Hughes at the helm, he was looking for a more expansive style of play with the likes of Bojan Krkic, Xherdan Shaqiri and Marko Arnautovic leading an exciting front line.
His first season in the English Premier League, saw Bojan churn out impressive performances and score big goals against the top six. His first goal for the club came on the 9th of November 2014 against Tottenham Hotspur at White Hart Lane in a 2-1 win. He then followed this goal up by netting against Arsenal in a 3-2 win on the 6th of December 2014, on the 26th of December he won and converted a penalty to score the only goal of the game against Everton, Bojan would then follow that up by netting the only goal of the game in 1-0 victory over Leicester City on the 17th of January 2015. 26th of January 2015 would prove to be a bittersweet moment for Bojan as he would notch his 5th goal of the season in a 4-1 win in the fourth round of the FA Cup against Rochdale but was later stretchered off with a knee injury which kept him out for the remainder of the season.
It took Bojan eight months to get his first start for Stoke City again in the English Premier League on the 19th of September 2015, scoring in a 2-2 draw against Leicester City. Bojan was enjoying life at Stoke City and seemed to have his mojo back and was rewarded with a new contract until the summer of 2020. In total, he played 31 times for Stoke in the 2015/16 season, scoring seven goals as the Potters finished in 9th position.
Bojan struggled for playing time under Hughes in 2016/17 season, starting just five league matches in six months and in January 2017, Bojan admitted he would be ready to leave Stoke to gain regular football.
On the 29th of January 2017, Bojan joined Mainz 05 in the German Bundesliga for the remainder of the season. He scored his first goal for Mainz in a 2–2 against Bayern Munich, making him only the seventh player to score in the four top leagues in Europe. Bojan was underwhelming in his spell at Mainz but did secure their safety in the top-flight but did only manage a solitary goal in 11 appearances.
A subsequent loan spell back to his homeland for the 2017/18 season at Alaves. This was Bojan’s last big chance to prove that he could still cut it at the top level but that wasn’t to be the case as he only played 15 times and failed to score as Alaves finished 14th in La Liga and retained their top-flight status.
Bojan returned to Stoke City to find them in the English Championship and found game time hard to come by firstly under Gary Rowett who was later sacked and was subsequently replaced by Nathan Jones as Stoke finished 16th in the championship. Bojan made 23 appearances in his final season for the club and notching just the 1 goal before being released a year early from his contract.
Following his release from Stoke City, Bojan was snapped up by MLS side Montreal Impact on the 7th of August 2019. He would spend two underwhelming seasons at the MLS side, amassing 29 appearances and scoring just the 7 goals. His contract would not be renewed for 2021 season.
In August 2021, Bojan would join his former Barcelona teammates in Thomas Vermaelen, Sergi Samper and Andres Iniesta at J-League 1 side Vissel Kobe. This was seen as a major coup for Japanese football but ultimately it turned sour and Vissel Kobe narrowly avoided relegation in the 2022 season. Thus followed a mass exodus of the ex-Barcelona contingent with only Andres Iniesta remaining. During his 2-year spell at Vissel Kobe he amassed 26 appearances with just the 1 goal to his name. This wasn’t good enough and was later released from his contract.
Bojan announces his retirement from professional football on the 23rd of March 2023 after an underwhelming spell in Japan with his career dwindling out after showing such early promise. I think it’s fair to say he fell out of love with the game after announcing his retirement.
“These decisions are not easy to make, but it is true that he had been away from home for twelve years at a professional level. I feel very fulfilled, also personally. I felt that it was the moment to move on to the next thing, and to enjoy things that I have not been able to do these years.”
His final game as a footballer will be with the Catalan national team, who are looking to arrange a friendly in June to send Bojan off. He also admitted that he had been taking courses to remain in football.
“In recent years I have been training, more in sports management. I feel ready to start a new stage with enthusiasm, wanting to be part of a club, in the sports management part and, above all, in the most human side of the players, knowing how we live, the difficulties we have…”.
Bojan has admitted to suffering panic attacks from the age of 17 onwards in his autobiography, something he had to manage throughout the rest of his career. Barcelona President Joan Laporta said the doors were open for him at the club.
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