Football Player's Biography 7: Bojan Krkić

Full name	Bojan Krkić Pérez
Date of birth	28 August 1990 (1990-08-28) (age 20)
Place of birth	Linyola, Spain
Height	1.70 m (5 ft 7 in) ^[1]
Playing position	Striker / Winger

Bojan Krkić Pérez (Serbian: Бојан Кркић Перез; pronounced Boyan Krkich Perez; born 28 August 1990, in Linyola, Lleida, Catalonia) often known as just Bojan, is a Spanish footballer of Serbian descent who currently plays as a striker for Spanish La Liga club FC Barcelona

Career

Early years

Bojan Krkić Pérez was born to a Serbian father (Bojan Krkić Sr.) who was a professional footballer for the Serbian side Red Star Belgrade and a Catalan mother (Maria Lluïsa Pérez).^[2] He played for Barcelona's youth teams from 1999 to 2006.^[3] A quick striker with quite notable dribbling skills, it was reported that he scored more than 800 goals for the youth teams in 7 years, but there is no clear evidence of this. He then played the 2006–07 season with the FC Barcelona B team until he signed a professional contract with the Barcelona A team upon turning 17. Bojan played his first match with Barcelona on 24 April 2007, scoring a goal in a friendly match against Al-Ahly.^[4]

Barcelona

2007–08 season

On 16 September 2007 (at 17 years and 19 days), Bojan made his official debut for Barcelona against CA Osasuna, replacing Giovani dos Santos in the 78th minute^[2]^[5] and breaking Lionel Messi's record of the youngest Barcelona player to feature in a La Liga match.^[6] Three days later, he made his UEFA Champions League debut against Olympique Lyonnais, coming on at the 88th minute for Messi. He was, at the time, the youngest Barcelona player ever to feature in a Champions League game, at 17 years and 22 days.^[7] He made his second Champions League appearance on 2 October, coming on at the 81st minute for Ronaldinho against VfB Stuttgart. On 20 October 2007 (at 17 years and 53 days), Bojan made his first league start for Barcelona away to Villarreal CF 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.^[8]^[9]
Bojan scored his first ever Champions League goal on 1 April 2008 (at 17 years and 217 days) against Schalke 04, netting the only goal in the first (away) leg of the quarter-finals, making him the first person born in the 1990s to score in the Champions League and the second youngest player ever, behind Ghanaian forward Peter Ofori-Quaye, then playing for Olympiacos, who scored at the age of 17 years and 195 days.^[1]^[2]^[10] Bojan finished the season with a record of 10 goals, breaking Raúl's record of most goals scored in a debut season .^[2]

2008–09 season

Upon the departure of Gianluca Zambrotta, Bojan was handed the number 11 shirt. After 14 games (13 of which he entered as a substitute), Bojan ended a goal drought by netting a brace against UD Almería in a 2-0 victory.^[11] Despite featuring less compared to the previous season, Bojan helped Barcelona to their 19th La Liga title. He also aided Barcelona to their first Copa del Rey win in 11 years by scoring five goals in the competition, including one in the final against Athletic Bilbao. Bojan was an unused substitute in the 2009 UEFA Champions League Final against Manchester United, which Barcelona won 2-0 and saw them cap off a treble-winning campaign. Bojan's three goals in ten appearances throughout the competition saw him finish as the equal sixth highest goalscorer for the season.^[12]

2009–10 season

On the first day of the La Liga campaign against Sporting de Gijón, Bojan scored a header in the 18th minute courtesy of a flick from Seydou Keita. Barcelona went on to win the game by a scoreline of 3-0.^[13] On 10 November, he scored twice in the second leg of the Copa del Rey against Cultural Leonesa, helping his team to a 5-0 victory.^[14] Coming off the bench as a late substitute for Andrés Iniesta, Bojan scored his first and only Champions League goal of the season against VfB Stuttgart.^[15] He began finding the net more often towards the end of the season; 7 of his 8 league goals for the season came from the last 12 games.^[16]

2010–11 season

Before the start of this season, Bojan again had his squad number changed. He will wear number 9 this season after Zlatan Ibrahimović moved on loan to A.C. Milan. In match against AD Ceuta in Copa del Rey, Bojan first time played as a captain for Barcelona in an official match, he also captained Barcelona in the first half of a friendy match against Vålerenga in the pre season. Bojan was a back up player behind Lionel Messi, Pedro Rodríguez and David Villa but came off of the bench against UD Almería to score the sixth and eighth goal in an 8-0 win and later came on against Real Madrid in the El Clásico to set up the fifth goal in a 5-0 win for Jeffrén Suárez. He scored a fifth goal in the match against Real Sociedad that Barcelona won by 5-0. He scored a crucial league goal from a Daniel Alves assist for Barcelona against Sevilla in a 1-1 draw. He scored in his 100th appearance for the Catalan club in a league match against Getafe. Bojan put pen-to-paper on a contract extension on 20 December 2010 with Barcelona, which will keep him at the club until 2015 and increase his buy-out clause from 80 to 100€ million.

National team

Spanish national youth teams

Bojan shot to prominence at the UEFA European Under-17 Championship in Luxembourg in May 2006 when he was joint top-scorer. He achieved this despite being a year younger than most of the other players in the tournament and only playing 40 minutes in four out of five of Spain Under-17's matches. He scored a hat-trick against Luxembourg, before inspiring his side to a 3–0 victory over the eventual champions Russia, with all of the goals of the game being scored with him on the pitch as a second half substitute. In the third match of the tournament, he scored a penalty after once again being introduced at half time. He started the semi-final against the Czech Republic but, after his team-mate Roberto García was sent off, Spain struggled and lost 2–0 in a shock result. In the third-place play-off, Bojan was once again a second half sub and scored the opener in the 53rd minute. When the match went to penalties, he scored and Spain won 5–4 to finish third. In the 2007 European Under-17 Football Championship, Bojan led Spain to victory scoring the only goal against England in the final. He also scored in the semi-final against Belgium.
There was controversy surrounding Bojan's call up to the Spain U-17 squad for the 2007 Under-17 World Cup in South Korea, because Barcelona wanted to keep him so that he could be part of their Asian tour. The Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) denied the request and further controversy arose when the RFEF denied one of Barcelona's medics, Ricard Pruna, the opportunity to accompany Bojan to the tournament to monitor a tendon problem in the player's knee.
During the tournament, Bojan scored five goals, finishing as joint third top scorer along with Germany and Bayern Munich midfielder Toni Kroos. He was inspirational in leading Spain to the final. However, in the semi-final against Ghana, Bojan was sent off for his second yellow card with only seconds left to play. He was suspended for the final and Spain lost to Nigeria on penalties. Because of his performances, Bojan was given the Adidas Bronze Ball, naming him the third best player in the tournament, behind Macauley Christantus (silver) and Toni Kroos (gold).^[17]
Bojan scored for the Spanish Under 21s in their 2–0 win over Poland on 12 October 2007, quickly establishing himself as an important player, also prompting rumours of an eventual call-up from senior side's manager Luis Aragonés. Bojan was selected in the squad for the 2009 UEFA Under-21 Championship. However, the Spanish team underperformed and picked up one point from their first two games, leaving progression almost impossible.

Spanish national team

He was called up by the Serbian national team and team manager Radomir Antić but declined because of his wish to play for La Furia Roja (the Red Fury), which he considered the only national colours that he would have on his jersey.^[18]
On 1 February 2008, Bojan was included in Luis Aragonés' squad for the friendly against France on 6 February 2008. Should he have featured in that match, Bojan would have made history by becoming the youngest player ever to represent Spain at 17 years, 5 months and 9 days, eclipsing Ángel Zubieta's record of 17 years and 9 months, which has stood for over 70 years.^[19] However, Bojan fell ill and could not play.^[20]
On 17 May 2008, it was revealed that Bojan had been left out of Spain's 23-man squad for Euro 2008, after having talked to Luis Aragonés asking if he could be left out of the team on personal grounds, and also citing fatigue.^[21]
He made his debut on 10 September 2008 (at 18 years and 13 days) under Vicente del Bosque against Armenia, where he came on during the last ten minutes for Santi Cazorla and played on the right wing.

Catalonian national team

Bojan made his official debut with Catalonia in the friendly match against the Basque Country on 29 December 2007 in Bilbao; he scored the Catalan goal in the 1–1 draw. He also scored a year later on 28 December 2008 in the 2–1 win over Colombia and in the 4–2 win against Argentina in 22 December 2009. He scored twice and also provided two assists in a 4–0 win against Honduras on 28 December 2010.