I. The Fourth Foer Brother
Every so often, when I’m faced with a lonely hour, I like to wile away some time by inventing a career for a hypothetical fourth Foer brother. You know the Foer brothers, of course: there’s Franklin, the oldest, who edited The New Republic and wrote How Soccer Explains the World; 
Jonathan Safran, the next-oldest, the whimsical-melancholy (whimsicholy?) novelist who published Everything Is Illuminated at 25 and instantly became a darling among the brownstones; and Joshua, the youngest, a national Memory Champion (he memorized the order of a complete deck of cards in under two minutes), the author of a new book about the world of competitive remembering, the secretary of the Athanasius Kircher Society, and the co-founder of Atlas Obscura, “a Compendium of the World’s Wonders, Curiosities, and Esoterica.”
Clearly, when the line formed at the dawn of creation for intelligence and creativity allotments, the Foers were among the people who brought tents. It’s not entirely clear—I mean this in the nicest way—whether the three of them are real or simply a long-running piece of Wes Anderson performance art. But what if there were a fourth? Given the clear progression from smart-with-a-touch-of-whimsy (FF) through whimsical-with-a-lot-of-intelligence (JSF) to quasi-surreal-mindscape-in-which-the-distinction-between-whimsy-and-intelligence-colllapses (JF), he’d have to be something else, right? In my game, I’ve imagined a Francis Foer who revolutionizes spear-fishing and proves that pi is not a constant—on the same napkin; a Jeremiah Sagan Foer who masters hieroglyphics and writes the definitive ancient Egyptian epic—in 2013; a Jonah Foer whose explorations at Easter Island uncover a lost-but-thriving underground civilization—to which he introduces above-grounders via a string of immortal graphic novels; and a Jefferson Finbury Foer who founds a Consortium for the Appreciation of the Hypothetical Music of Mars—and then knits a machine that can extract beef from cows without hurting them.
All fairly plausible, right? But there’s one possibility that I don’t let into the game, because it’s too depressing. What if the fourth Foer broke the trend? After all, even with a tradition carefully handed down from brother to brother, the odds that one family would keep producing quirky savants must be slim. What if Jefferson Finbury Foer tried his best, and wound up stalling halfway to Foerdom? What if the fourth Foer brother were a copy editor at McSweeney’s?
II. Youth in Revolt
Here’s a related question: Why is it that the club most celebrated for its ability to develop youth talent isn’t doing a better job developing its most talented youth? I remember when Bojan first appeared on the scene, in 2007. This was pre-Guardiola, the late Rijkaard Barcelona, back when it was still theoretically possible for the club to make a substitution before the 86th minute. He was this shaggy, sloe-eyed 17-year-old, a casting director’s image of a poet, and every time he came on the Camp Nou crowd reacted like someone was turning a knob up. He was so obviously the next great player out of La Masia, the heir to the lineage of Xavi, Iniesta, and Messi. Youngest player ever to play for Barcelona in La Liga (breaking Messi’s record—Messi being, at that point, a worldly 20). Youngest player ever to play for Barcelona in the Champions League. First player born in the ’90s to score in the Champions League. 10 goals in his first year. (If you believe the stories, he’d scored over 100 a year for the youth team.) There was no question about how good he was. Being there meant reading the first page of history.
He was a strange player, although maybe not so strange for Barcelona; strong and quick, but not flagrantly so in the manner of, say, Pato, with no left foot to speak of, an awkward first touch, and a preternatural ability, once he was on the ball, to keep hacking it into places where he could get to it just before the defender did. Watching his runs was like watching someone fight their way through underbrush: with a crazy, scrambling grace, he would lurch and charge and claw his way around defenders who’d lose their balance because it seemed like he should lose his. I can’t think of another player—maybe Arshavin—who was so much fun to watch with the ball squashed up against the byline. Where most attackers would play for a corner, or just run out of space, Bojan would find weird ways to keep the ball alive, and half the time it seemed like he either broke free with it or managed to scoop it out into a dangerous position. At 17, he was one of Barcelona’s best players at breaking down an 11-0-0 formation.
Now he’s 20, and as far as I can tell he’s made virtually no progress in the intervening three seasons. His left foot is a little better, maybe, but his brain seems to be worse: When he’s not on the ball, he looks aimless. Back in ’07, it seemed like he had skills you couldn’t learn and would only improve in the ones you could. Now it seems like his instincts have eroded and his technique hasn’t really gotten better. Of course, it’s hard to tell, since he’s only played four complete games this season—half as many as he’s entered after the 80th minute, a third as many as he’s watched as an unused substitute. His career has been so fragmentary—he’ll disappear for months, then suddenly score seven in 12 games, the way he did to close out last season—that even judging his progress involves a lot of guesswork. Some of that has to do with tactics, of course. He’s not a natural left winger, but with Messi scoring like the raindrops, he’s not likely to get time at center forward in this decade. And then, he’s still only 20. Is it too soon to say that he’s failed? Is Messi warping our expectations of where a 20-year-old player should be? Or should we look at Bojan’s career vs. Pato’s—Pato is a year older but Bojan’s debut came first—and decide he’s a disappointment?
III. Another Orphan
Bojan has largely lost the fans, whose patience, even for budding academy superstars, is finite. A few days ago I read through a 200+ page “Bojan Krkic” thread on a popular Barça forum. It opened at around the time of his debut, with a lot of bold predictions about how he’d be the best player in the world—better than Messi—by 2010. By 2010, it had largely devolved into an argument about whether he should be sold or sent out on loan. A small minority insisted that fans should have faith—in him; in Pep; in, I guess, a vague memory of a golden destiny that you once knew would come true. (Though again: Bojan is 20.) Somewhere around the 2,790th post, one member of that loyalist-optimist minority wrote—I’m paraphrasing—”What would you do if he were your son?” To which the first reply answered: “I’d send him on loan ASAP!” And to which the second reply answered: “I’d say he was adopted.”
So what if Jefferson Finbury Foer was adopted, but was also a writer and a jungle explorer, but was also forbidden for some reason from spending time writing and exploring jungles? I remember a goal Bojan scored against Villarreal last year, in the middle of his weird, fleeting teenage renaissance. From way out on the right flank, Xavi flares in a long, diagonal pass to where Bojan is waiting in the middle of the pitch, maybe 40 yards from the goal. (Remember, he’s best as a center forward.) The first defender lunges for the ball and loses his balance, so Bojan spins away from him, only to find himself faced by Gonzalo Rodríguez, who’s between him and the goal. With a sort of half-stuttered extension at the end of the original spin move, Bojan knocks the ball past Gonzalo—who, a tenth of a second ago, wasn’t anywhere in Bojan’s field of vision—so that Gonzalo seems to have an easy play on it. But Bojan’s tricked him, he’s kicked the ball at a deceptive angle, so that when Gonzalo peels away from him to go make what he thinks will be an easy recovery of possession, Bojan is able to run behind him and still get to the ball first, and even though Gonzalo instantly sees what’s happened, I mean sees it as soon as he’s taken one step, he’s powerless to prevent it, and by the time he’s running forward again Bojan is already two steps ahead of him and bearing down on the goal, where he finally puts the ball with a simple finish that slips it between the diving Diego López and the hopelessly beaten Gonzalo.
I see this, and I think: There is nothing you can say about this game. If Bojan can score a goal like that, what can’t he do? Right now Bojan is a star and a loser and there’s no telling which result will finally be more repeatable. So how long is too long to wait, and how much hope is too much?
Read More: Barcelona, Bojan Krkić, Portraits
by Brian Phillips · March 9, 2011
I’ve heard from a few sources that Bojan’s main malfunction is his psychological fragility. Evidently the poor chap has sobbed on more than one occasion (http://vodpod.com/watch/1188553-bojan-krkic-cries-after-being-subbed) from being substituted and/or playing poorly.
I could be proved wrong by a counter example, but this lack of toughness or maturity doesn’t seem like a symptom of anything done or not done at la Masia. Most of their graduates seem to have been drilled to have ice in their veins.
Brilliant article, yet so sad to read.
I still have faith in him…He can still be a star
Great read. Until this season I’d been against the option of loaning him out, but now I think otherwise. His appearances this season have been subpar, especially in light of his brilliance at the end of last season. (He replaced Ibra!) His performance in the recent Catalonia – Honduras match was spectacular; if I remember correctly, he got 2 goals and 1 assist. It seems like he can’t enjoy himself in his limited role at Barca. I say send him to Italy or England where he can get some minutes against tougher defenses.
Seems wholly insane to think that there are merely ordinary or slightly-above-ordinary players in the Barca ranks, but it’s true in Bojan’s case. Poor lad.
Just as Bojan Krkic is a little Catalan forward dressed up in a big Serbian centre forward’s surname, I’ve always thought that as a player he reminds me of Carlos Tévez in Sergio Canales’ body.[1]* He hustles and harries but in a vaguely fey way, if that makes any sense.
I had the impression towards the end of last season, when Guardiola benched Ibrahimovic and played Bojan every week, that he was giving the lad his last chance before making that call to Valencia to say, “Oh, go on then. Deal.”
The only thing that’s missing from Brian’s piece is the striking contrast over the last 12 months between Bojan’s stagnation and Pedro’s progress. When I went to see Barça last year on a wet winter’s night in Jerez, both Bojan and Pedro started. As soon as the match looked like it could go squiffy, they were replaced sharpish by Messi and Iniesta. My impression of the two young midshipmen was identical: mightily able on the ball, yes, but with decidedly non-mustard-cutting visión de juego. They never seemed to see the pass or the run into the gap that Xavi, Iniesta, Alves and Messi didn’t even have to see; they intuited it like sharks sniffing the blood of a wounded seal.
Fast-forward six months, and Pedro is impressing the world in South Africa, while Young Master Krkic is handed Etoo’s (and briefly Ibra’s) No. 9 shirt, with a fatherly hair tousle from El Mundo Deportivo but an implied “You’d better live up to it, son.” And he hasn’t lived up to it, has he? He’s still playing exactly the way I saw him play in Jerez, against the then-worst defence in the Liga: at once impressive and ineffective, keen to serve yet doomed to fail. Behold! Thomas Chatterton for the PlayStation generation (you nailed it with that image, Brian).
But, yes, he is only 20. We should perhaps remember that both Xavi and Iniesta also began their first-team careers as the go-to eternal promises for several seasons, and they didn’t really start to impress until they were 23 or so. Maybe Messi’s having achieved so much so young has spoiled us. Maybe what we’ve been conditioned by Messi to expect – demand, even – of Bojan is, like Messi himself, an totally unreasonable proposition.
I’m going to see them play on Sunday in Seville. I don’t expect I’ll get to see Bojan this time out (a few minutes of Afellay will do me quite nicely). And I don’t really know whether that should make me feel happy, sad or – like the Camp Nou crowd recently, just indifferent.
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1. Could Young Master Canales be the Bernabéu’s very own Bojan, or is he more their new Guti-in-waiting?
Xavi and Iniesta both looked sort of aimless for long periods in their early careers- and it’s not like Pato has set the world on fire at Milan (if he were transferred? Well, that would be something else entirely). People mature at different rates. Bojan is certainly better than Andersen at Man U right now (different player though), and there’s an argument to be made that his academy play is not a reasonable simulacrum of his professional experience- unlike Pato in Brasil or Ince or Bale in England.
@Archie_V Guti: so frustrating. Possibly more than Berbatov because he played a position that requires some work rate.
The Catalan Freddy Adu?
@Joe Not only Anderson at Old Trafford – remember when Macheda was being hailed as the new Marco van Basten. That lasted, what, four days?
@Archie_V Huge +1 for “Tévez in Sergio Canales’s body.” In the draft of this I think I wrote that “Bojan is what would happen if Luka Modrić became the Incredible Hulk”—basically the same idea, I think.
I just can’t wait for Bojan to lead the line with the Dos Santos brothers both pinned out wide. Screw this Villa-Messi-Pedro triangle. Or that Dinho-Etoo-Messi mix of yesteryear.
At the least, the next wave will be a handful on corner kicks and goal kicks!
Paraphrasing Zonal Marking’s Michael Cox:
Modern center forwards need to contribute to the team’s overall play. They can do this by the false 9 route, dropping deep and wide and playing in attacking midfielders, or they can go the target man route, and lead the line by holding up the ball, occupying opposition center backs, and finishing crosses. In both of these cases, the center forward is creating space for teammates and pulling the opposition out of shape.The poacher (ie Bojan) does neither of these things, but is reliant on teammates to produce chances which he then finishes. The poacher contributes little if he doesn’t score.
In Barca’s side, Bojan is in direct competition with the greatest false 9 in the world, and also not versatile enough to dislodge Villa and Pedro from the wide positions. He also isn’t physically imposing enough to offer a change of pace and an aerial threat. Ergo, he doesn’t have a place in the current side.
http://www.zonalmarking.net/2010/02/21/how-the-2000s-changed-tactics-6-the-death-of-the-poacher/
@matt Yeah, I think it’s clear that if he does have a future with the current Barça setup, it lies in adapting himself to the wing, which he hasn’t done very successfully so far. (Still, though: only 20!) He’s definitely not in Messi’s class as a false 9—or as a wide player, for that matter—but I do think he has potential in that role if he could just improve his touch. I see him as more versatile than a classic poacher, at least.
I kind of feel bad for the kid, he doesn’t have much of a chance to get into the set up but all of his teamates stress how important he is to the set up even with limited playing time (Iniesta in fourfourtwo). As much as he fits the barca system he needs to leave before his confidence and progression is permanently damaged. He would be a good fit at Arsenal where he would good the oppurtunity to play in a similar style as barcelona’s.
If you’re Bojan, why would you want to stick around? How are you going to break into that team? Messi and Pedro are young, complete, and brilliant. Since Messi has stopped injuring his thighs, he seems indestructible, and Pedro has scored in more competitions in one year than anyone else, ever. I don’t think they’re going anywhere soon, because you just don’t leave the greatest team this side of the new millennium (or ever?). Then there’s Villa, who might seem old at 29 and comparatively straight-forward for a Barcelona player, but he’s got 40 million euro to pay back, and he’s going to stay in the starting lineup for a long time.
Normally, you break through in a lineup when your team loses pretty badly and the manager decides it’s time to rearrange the deck chairs. After a bad day, a Javier Hernandez takes a turn from a misfiring Wayne Rooney, and can make a name for himself. I just don’t see that happening for Bojan (or Ibrahim Affelay or Jeffrén for that matter) aaany time soon.
@Dylan Whenever other players talk about his importance to the squad, isn’t there’s usually a subtext of him being the team mascot whose hair you ruff up for luck (an underchin chuck is an acceptable alternative) before crossing yourself and touching the turf?
@Asher If you’re Bojan – why would you leave? He’s at the best club in the world. He must believe he is good enough to get in the Barca team, even if it is not for a couple of years. I must say, when he was given #9 shirt, I thought it would mark the beginning of the ‘transformation’ from wonderkid to world class striker.
A beautiful essay, Brian. Thanks for it.
May I just add, totally randomly, and knowing that Xavi doesn’t need any more praise from me or anyone else, that on that goal his pass to Bojan is just ridiculous. It too required a split-decision decision, it was accurate within a few inches, and if it had had one ounce less weight on it it would have been picked off. Looking at that particular delivery I’m reminded that Xavi adores Paul Scholes, because that’s a Scholes pass if there ever was one.
Maybe he’s just not Barcelona quality. I bet he would flourish on a team like Everton. Arteta does well there. This same thing is happening with Sturridge, he’s got talent but maybe that just isn’t enough. He’s doing great at Bolton though. So where can we point our fingers? Unfair pressure? Inexperience? Lack of consistent first team play? Or maybe it’s the fact that some of these young players don’t play because they just love the game anymore. Maybe it’s because they want to be the next Drogba or Villa instead of just playing their own game. Tragic.
The tale of the Foer brothers, the second paragraph of which is among the best i’ve ever read on this site, coupled with the comments regarding Bojan’s emotional fragility, reminded me Richie Tenenbaum taking off his shoes and one of his socks after 72 unforced errors. Maybe Mr Krkic has had some lady trouble. In any case, it’s revealing that despite most people agreeing Royal Tenenbaum is a right bastard, football fans, like him, are clearly ‘not very good with disappointment’.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGvKkLLUswY
I say loan him to Stoke or Blackburn, get him playing at the Britannia on a cold evening or something?
But in all honesty, perhaps a passing team like West Brom, Bolton or even Arsenal would benefit him – the speed of the Premiership would develop him as an athlete, as too would the strength on the league.
@Sam Fayyaz actually the video manifests how devoted he is to the game and to his career. Last night when Rafael Van Der Vaart was substituted he went straight into the tunnel towards the dressing room and didn’t sit on the bench to wait for the final whistle of the game to come. I really don’t see more character in his decsion. To burn for the game doesn’t necessarily make you psichologically unstable. He is a great player, but there is definitely something strange around him…
There was some talk of loaning him to Ajax a few years back but he turned it down thinking Ajax was too weak. Considering our current lack of strikers (El Hamdaoui having fallen out of favor because he’s a total jerk, Cvitanic being totally mediocre), and his lack of first team play, I hope this idea gets some more traction.
Would love to see him destroy Dutch defenses / get some goals in at UEFA / CL level for us.
I’d say that Bojan = Teixeira. And like Teixeira, he might be in the midst of losing it, and might need to be shipped to a Serie A side for about €10 million.
Great read!
Isn’t there a case to be made that Barcelona is a little overrated from the perspective of successfully bringing through their youth talent? Everyone likes to cite the overwhelmingly homegrown talent on the first team, but at least in the case of Pique, they had to pay Manchester United in order to get him back. In case, if United were really smart Pique would still be playing for them. Fabregas has obviously been noted. Would Barcelona rather have Pepe Reina or Victor Valdez?
The same kind of worries seem to apply to the next generation of Barca youth; Sid Lowe wrote a good SI essay about Thiago Alacantara who’s apparently super-talented but couldn’t get a contract (until recently), to say nothing of getting actual playing time to develop.
The perils of having too much talent are underdiscussed.
I remember the first time I saw Bojan play, a few years ago, my brother (a big Barca fan) told me how excited he was for this Messi-like wunderkid. My first thought was that a “new Messi” playing at the same club as Messi and being only three years younger is never going to be able to have the same impact. Despite some good performances over these last few years Bojan is still a prospect and to be honest I occasionally forget about him completely, only to be reminded by a shot of him on the bench, or a blog post, and then I shift uncomfortably and feel a little bad. IBWM had a similar piece on him a while ago (http://inbedwithmaradona.com/bojan-is-that-it/) and reading this now, despite it being beautiful, made me feel the same way as that post did: sad and somehow nostalgic; a sense of lost opportuniy, of some injustice; but at the end of it, a glimmer of hope, still.
@Sam Fayyaz
Bojan does seem to be psychologically frail though I’d add that there is a tradition of sobbing at La Masia:
“Andres Iniesta, who came from Fuentealbilla, in the province of Albacete, spent most of his first year in tears, and refused to eat for the first two weeks he was there.” Apparently, Messi also struggled during his first days at the academy. “The story goes that when Messi turned up in Barcelona with his father, at the invitation of the club, it was still touch-and-go as to whether he would really stay. The club had offered to pay for the boy’s hormone treatment, and to look into job possibilities for his father. But personnel at the club from that time all recall Messi as looking like he would never last the famous nine days that the club had calculated for a final decision to be made. Apparently he just sat in a corner of La Masia’s reception area, looked at the floor and spoke to no-one. When his mother flew over to see if she could help out, and then was forced to return for work reasons, Messi begged to return to Argentina with her.” Maybe the ice will start flowing in Bojan’s veins when he hits 27? http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story?id=852733&sec=europe&root=europe&cc=5901
What were you doing at 20?
Bloody 20, 20 i say it again. Everyone is not Messi.
jeez… i just draw a blank in my mind when i see people criticize Bojan.
20.
Reading this article reminds me of Portillo another player the media once tipped for glory only to drift into obscurity. In my opinion Barca must farm the lad out or lose him. Its important for the development of players to let them go on loan spells if the have no place in the team as yet. That said, Barca must look into his perculiar case and act accordingly. Groeten van Nederland.
I’m a soccer player and a Barça fan, and often rewatch games to see what particular players are doing off the ball. Frankly, I don’t see Bojan doing anything particularly wrong. When he’s on, he plays for/with the team, like all his teammates (with the exception of Messi, who has license to make several selfish run attempts each game).
One difference this season is that many teams have adopted parked bus defenses, and ALL Barça finishing has gone down against such teams. Also, the majority of play has been down the right (Xavi/Alves/Messi/Pedro) rather than down the “Plan B” left (Iniesta/Villa/Maxwell)- Bojan is usually subbed on the left wing. The job is to attack, but not when the odds are against you. Bojan lays the ball off when attacking has a high chance of failing.
For his own development- yes, I think he’d score more on a team whose opponents aren’t by default parking the bus, and he had more playing time. But I don’t see much wrong with his play from the bench.
ahh dear Boje, the boy with the sad eyebrows.
he needs to hit the gym, regularly. the “Modric as Hulk” metaphor is perfect. so often you’ll see him trap the ball, then try and shield it from a defender with his upper-body, or roll the defender with his upper-body, or dribble through a narrow corridor of space holding defenders off with his upper-body, all the while having the upper-body of the protagonist from those old Mr. Muscle ads.
but more than his physical limitations, he’s also mentally weak. this is glaringly obvious when you watch him for Catalunya. he knows he’s the only good Catalan forward and even if he makes a mistake he’ll still play next time, and this seems to liberate him. all of a sudden he’s that 17 year old again, doing everything with ease. gliding away from people like they’re not there, making those superb diagonal crosses he used to do regularly, scoring goals, and just generally looking great. and that just doesn’t happen when he plays for Barça.
Bojan’s had his moments in Blaugrana since Pep took over, but they’re few and far between. his brace in Almeria in 08/09 was brilliant, as were his displays against Villarreal and Sevilla at the back end of 09/10, but there’s no consistency. Pep’s a demanding coach, and Barça are much much better now than they were in 07/08. the stakes are higher and so Bojan’s nerves hold him back. the kid has no balls.
he has twice the talent of Pedro, but about one third the balls. Pedro can have confidence issues, but they only plague him for a game at most. he has the ability to just power through them, and that’s why he’s kept the place he took from Bojan at the start of 09/10 (remember the two were set to duke it out to see who took Henry’s spot – and Bojan had it ’til he got injured early doors, then Pedro took off and the rest is history). although it helps that he’s lightning fast, has fantastic stamina and revels in being third chair on the violin.
Bojan has his eyes on that second chair, which requires a higher level of play. can he achieve that? well he’s only 20, so of course he CAN, but it will require a lot of gym work and a lot of growing up. Villa should be a great role model (much better than Eto’o and Zlatan) for him.
I hope he makes it.
Bojan needs to become buddies with Mario Gomez .. Infact every misfiring forward should be buddies with Mario Gomez.. Mario Gomez should have a summer camp for the fallen strikers
@dth I think its the “overrated-ness” of the Barcelona Masia that kept Bojan around, nobody wants to admit they’ve made a mistake in bringing Bojan up so young up the ranks, so he stays in the off chance in 5 minutes per game he will be amazing and wake up, had he stayed in Barça B a few more years he’d been great and gotten all the time he needed like Pedro did, same with Pique at that young age he left and got time playing elsewhere, when he was worthy he came back, and look at him now.
I think they should either sell him or loan him to a young team, like Arsenal, where he can grow and develop with good players more similar to himself.
This is singularly marvellous.
Could you imagine how different things could be for him right if his goal against Inter last season had been allowed?
I find this piece depressing, mostly because of its need to insert a level of literary pretentiousness onto sports writing. The opening is self indulgent and should have been cut. The writing mythologizes Bojan in a way that is untrue. He was never that talented. Yes there was a great deal of hype, but most of it came because Bojan is physically beautiful, and the TV and all that entails loves that aspect of him, as does this writer who despite his literary pretentions doesn’t have the insight or guts to really explore the Bojan Tv phenomenon. Bojan is a starlet. A David Cassidy, a Bobbi Sherman, whatever. Another teen idol, and he’s been give so many extra chances simply because of his looks and his potential to sell shirts. This article strives so hard to be literary without being in any way insightful or brave. It’s sad, really. And transparent. What the fuck does the Foer family have to do with any of this? Nothing.
He’s only 20! Let’s not like he died or anything. If Barcelona is not the right fit, surely he will find a great fit at the ripe old age of… 22? 23? He had a great run last year, how many teams would take him and run right now? I don’t know, to me, lets wait til he is 24 to say he is “subpar” (Dustin) or “ordinary or slightly above ordinary” (James T.). Please?
I think he should have gone out on loan a long time ago, he arrived at Barcelona at a very unfortunate time given all the outrageous talent available. Nonetheless, I look at him and compare him to Pedro and Giovanni dos Santos, Pedro has become a world cup winner and a regular in the squad, despite breaking into the first team later than Bojan. On the other hand, Dos Santos left to Tottenham and has spent the last few years playing in the championship and now with Racing, but he has a lot more games for the National team and played in the world cup where he was relatively impressive. But when looking at the careers of both players, the desire to be a regular, to be a great is more obvious with Dos Santos, he is fighting and moving all over the place for regular football unlike Bojan who despite not seamlessly entering the Barcelona formation like Pedro, did not take the risk and gamble on the true ability of his talent. But its never too late, Its only a matter of time before he is loaned out to Malaga or Getafe and he still has a second chance to resharpen his instincts and get back on track again.
@Kaitlin: I agree wholeheartedly. If Barcelona fans want to get rid of him, by all means, please do!
Hey! i’m the one who said “I’d say he was adopted.”, but it was a joke FFS, i still have faith in him =)
@Seb I guess it depends on the extent to which his current struggles are psychological and to what extent they’re based on his not having a natural role in the formation. Saving the team vs. Inter might have done wonders for his confidence, but it wouldn’t have made him a left winger or given him the power to start ahead of Messi.
excellent article. crap comment section.
someone reads something a forum or ‘from someone’ and you get the peanut gallery doing psychological analysis.
nothing like a wanker sitting in his underwear talking about the mental toughness of a guy who went through the Barca ranks and has been competing for his job since he was in grade school.
the pressures at all academies is huge on kids but even more so at Barca.
Id say the kids who come out of La Masia have already faced more pressure and scrutiny than most professionals have their whole careers.
Burnout is not unheard of in young elite athletes.
Is he lacking in confidence? Any kid in any sport who breaks out early and then doenst play will suffer the same fate.
His biggest problem is that he is at Barca where good small players are in abundance.
He also underscores that Fabregas made the right decision at 16 to become a first team player rather than be a stop gap for 6-7 years.
Bojan lived his dream but the status quo is only going to hurt his career very soon. He will have to decide if playing at Barca is worth spending all this time not playing.
Do you want to be a starter in a first div team or do you want to be a water carrier at Barca?
id love to see him at Arsenal, Udinese, Dortmund, Lille or Villareal.
I hope the suggestiong of EPL were a joke, a bad joke.
@Brian Phillips it’s psychological. he can play as a free-roaming inside forward (which is basically what Villa does on the left) and does so for Catalunya. scoring that goal would probably have changed everything, especially as he’d have started the final too.
It *must* be hard for a guy to come through with that amount of hype at the age of 17, to do that well, break into the national team, and then one injury later find yourself rooted to the bench, relying on five minute cameos to win back your place in the team. Probably even harder when you do actually manage it (tail end of last season) only to see your manager buy David Villa regardless.
Technically he’s a player that in my eyes has it all. A natural finisher and fantastic dribbler, who is as well a true product of La Masia in terms of his movement, passing ability and awareness of the game. I agree with mo.B.bad that you can see the player he used to be (and how ridiculous to say this of a 20 year old) in his performances for Catalunya.
That said, he probably would benefit from going out on loan to get regular first team football and just become consistently the player he’s always promised to be. Someone mentioned Mario Gomez earlier, maybe Bayern Munich wouldn’t be a bad shout for him? A big club that plausibly wouldn’t be too much of a step down from Barca, a decent league albeit sans Stoke City, and in Gomez a decent strike partner to take some of the weight of his shoulders.
@Lee
Really?
Lost players, always depresses me, flamini, i rem him and fabregas absolutely destroying milan 2-0 at the san siro 2-3 seasons ago, then he transferred to milan n dissapeared for 2 3years, also dos santos, i think its depressing that these kids didnt get the chance to express their talent
@Mike R and Reba….bravo
as the quoter of ZM stated, the new false #9 is a much different role than old-school strikers. that old school poacher was tactically simple and resulted in 19-20 year old “prodigy” strikers more often. now the best example might be a Javier Hernandez or alexis sanchez or kun aguero and they are all 22+.
now barca is in a tough place b/c experience for bojan in a team like udinese would be ideal but the current squad isn’t that robust. if leo or villa goes down hurt then he will be thrust into the spotlight. probably making his 2nd start in a row this weekend as pedro & messi are in doubt. until this point fcb as a whole has been weirdly lucky this year to limit injuries to the midfield/fwd contingent, thus limiting time for messi or affelay or thiago.
it isn’t as if the kid has gone from playing 30+ games to warming the bench. he’s an integral part of the team and if you have issues understanding his role, observe an entire european season and the ebbs and flows of form and injury.
additionally….can anyone here name a striker in a european league who at the age of 20 is in the top 10 league scorers?
totalbarca.com has an excellent piece explaining the entire philosophy of the youth system which should be read before commenting on whether or not he is good enough for barca A:
http://www.totalbarca.com/2010/news/la-masia-like-a-laboratory-part-1/
http://www.totalbarca.com/2010/news/la-masia-like-a-laboratory-part-2/
bojan however was pulled into the first team prior to this plan being put in place, partly due to need and partly due to skill. but the plan is not just based on talent but on preparing players to lead their team and be prepared for a complete european season. if anyone thinks that with bojan starting, barca would be leading la liga this year, you would be crazy….he’s just not ready for that.
reading a barca forum full of internet shouters hardly classifies as research. you would be well served to learn something like the two top scorers for barca b in the spanish segunda being 24 and 25, then try to write a post that bojan has somehow regressed. it’s as if at the age of 20, b/c bojan isn’t leading barcelona, he is underperforming. really!? REALLY!?
overall this post screams of the wildly american positivity towards “potential” and then disappointment when that potential isn’t immediately realized.
visually though….this is a beautiful site.
can I also ask how you can compare this kid to freddy adu other than they both had some hype. adu is a few months from being 22, did anyone really think he would be leading a european club at this point. he bounced around europe, probably receiving advice that he could be at a big club when the reality was he had a ways to developmentally.
he is finally in a good situation, getting playing time and being a professional. ridiculous to consider giving up on him at this point.
He’s brilliant, but he isn’t Barcelona. He’s eccentric, electric, a hot and cold player. Barcelona is about perfection – everything is just right. There is no space for erraticness. Even their flamboyance has that “has to be just right” feel about it. Bojan could do with a lack of structure (which seems like a weird thing to say considering Barca’s movement and formations, but everything is about being in the right place at the right time. There’s instinct to just find something out of nowhere, and there’s Barcelona who just know where to be because it’s drilled into them day in day out). Bojan is an instinctive player, not one who can be taught the way of Barcelona.
But that’s just my 2 cents.
Update: Having only scored three goals all season before this piece of Brian’s was published, Young Midshipman Krcic has scored two goals in the two consecutive matches he’s played – two matches in which both Leo Messi and David Villa have upped their own goal tallies by, um, none.
Conclusion: Bojan reads ROP.
Personal update: Since Pedro went off after 15 minutes at the Sánchez Pizjuán, with nether-parts issues, I did get to see Bojan play after all. And not only did he score, and not only was he not even remotely fey or louche-Romantic-poetical in his demeanour, he was significantly nippier and zippier than Villa was all night.
Go, Bo!
@mo.B.bad I like your comments. Very fair portrait of Bojan as he is right now. I heard a rumor he will be loaned out to Napoli next season. I think Bojan’s place in the Barça’s starting 11 is at the place of Villa. At 29, David will give three more good seasons (though I hope more, i think this is the aim) and then be rotated with Bojan (seeing how his progress goes).
What worries me isn’t just his lack of physicality (i think that can be developed) but his lack of use with his left foot. He needs to be more versatile to break into the Barça trident.
The premise of this article is an entertaining bit of sophistry. If there were 4 Foer brothers, they could all be published at the same time, whereas Barca (and everyone else) play with no more than 3 up front.
@Dylan Other countries would be tough. His body is so slight that it really is hard to imagine him being able to handle the physicality of the Premiership. I can’t think of a Forward that small there. For those who assume Arsenal would be the easiest transition (style of play), I’m not sure he could supplant Chamakh or Bendtner, as a sub for RVP… A loan to another Liga side where he will get min seems to make the most sense….
I think you need to analyze the way he played in youth ranks to understand why he disappoints. If you guys check out footage of him at age 14-15-16 playing for barca u16 and u19 the play style was:
teammate passes him the ball
he dribles entire oposing team and:
a)scores
b)misses, gets back to get ball again, dribles everyone again
He did this 8 plays out of 10 and this is a huge formation error, if you have a 14 year old with a super talent you dont let him play like that (even if you know he can). The end result is a kid that never had so much as a sniff of serious competitive football where you have to play as a team and also believes he will drible entire teams his whole life… Wich also afects him psycologically when he cant no matter what at an A level. Basically he was completely unprepared to the reality of pro football.
So wether you want to face it or not go easy on compliments to La Masia, they efectively ruined Bojan by indulging his talent.
We should perhaps remember that both Xavi and Iniesta also began their first-team careers as the go-to eternal promises for several seasons, and they didn’t really start to impress until they were 23 or so. Maybe Messi’s having achieved so much so young has spoiled us. Maybe what we’ve been conditioned by Messi to expect – demand, even – of Bojan is, like Messi himself, an totally unreasonable proposition.
It’s really sad to see bojan as a player who was compared to messi now at a club like stoke City