FCBARCELONA.CAT

13.07.2009 16:59

A decade of Bojan’s goals

Jaume Marcet

Bojan Krkic joined Barcelona on 13 July 1999. From the under-10s A side to winning the treble, Bojan has been through all the club’s age-group and reserve teams and in those ten years has scored 548 goals.

Ten years ago Bojan left the Bellpuig Football School run by his father to join Barça’s youth teams. On 20th July he will begin his third season in the club’s first team.

First years of goals and fun

Bojan was part of the first Barça under-10s team set up in the 1999/2000 season with the best players from the club’s Football School. In that first season of 7-a-side football Bojan scored 220 goals. The switch to the 11-a-side game didn’t reduce his goal scoring efficacy as under Carles Romagosa in the under-12s side he racked up 98 more.

First triumphs in the under-12s

In the under-12 A side coached by Sergio Lobera, Bojan was not only the team’s top scorer again with 65 strikes but the side also won the League and he picked up all the individual awards at the Brunete tournament.

At this tournament the young Krkic was chosen as best player and also ended up as top goal scorer.

Grows in under-14s and under-16s

Under Xavi Llorens in the under-14s B Bojan sometimes played out on the wing in a new position for him but still found the net on 75 occasions. In the under-14s A, and once more under the orders of Sergio Lobera, he became the academy’s most promising striker. In addition to scoring 85 times, he also netted the last minute winner in the last game of the season at Sant Adrià which made his side into the League champions.

The 2004/05 season was tough for Bojan as he missed a lot of games through injury. Nonetheless, he still managed to score 40 goals.

Last seasons in the academy

In the 2005/06 season Bojan played at three different levels. After scoring 20 goals with the under-16s A in the first half of the season, he then played for the under-18 B and A sides.

He scored a dozen goals with the two teams, one of them again decisive in the last game of the Under-18 Premier Division at Badalona. The strike meant Barça took the League title at the last second and just when Espanyol had prematurely begun their celebrations.

Bojan started the 2006/07 season with the under-18s A side but after scoring fifteen goals moved up to Barça B where he scored ten times in his first experience of Second Division B.

Into the first team

He was called into the first team by Rijkaard in the 2007/08 season and consolidated his place in last season’s treble-winning side. It is a dream come true for the kid who started out ten years ago and who couldn’t have imagined how much he would achieve in the last decade at Barça.