I guess everyone’s heard about Bojan Krkic by now. If you caught any part of the recent Fifa U-17 World Cup Finals in China then his name should be familiar to you. Or maybe you’ve been fortunate enough to catch a glimpse of his few appearances in La Liga with Barcelona.
For those who haven’t had the pleasure, Bojan – as he is know for obvious reasons – was Spain’s best player and top scorer at China 07 where he weighed in with 5 goals in 5 matches, including the extra time winner that secured his country’s place in the final. Of course, he finished that game in tears after picking up a yellow card that would rule him out of the final against Nigeria.
The Spaniards felt their team was highly handicapped by his absence – they lost to Nigeria on penalties – and, based on what I’ve seen of this kid so far, I have to agree. It’s not that Nigeria did not deserve to win, they were certainly the real deal over the entire competition, but Golden Eaglet’s task would have been that much harder with Bojan on the pitch.
The 17-year-old came on at the break against Recreativo Huelva several Sundays ago and proceeded to turn a hitherto flaccid Barcelona into 3-0 winners. He scored an excellent goal after being set up by Thierry Henry, and was a thorn in the side of the visitors’ defence for the 45 minutes he was on the field. For one so young, Bojan shows maturity beyond his years, and if he reaches his full potential, La Liga – and Champions League – clubs must be dreading a future Bojan-Messi Barcelona striker force.
Watching this latest Barcelona phenom, it occurred to me that the Catalan club is hardly given enough credit for its youth development program. Not surprising, given the usual procession of big name imports: from Stoichkov, Koeman and Romario in the early 90s, through Ronaldo, Figo and Rivaldo, and now Ronaldinho, Eto’o, and Deco.
But consider this; of the current first team squad at Barcelona, no less than seven players have come up through the ranks: Olegeur Pressas , Carles Puyol, Xavi, Andres Iniesta, Bojan, Leo Messi, and Giovanni dos Santos. It’s true that the latter two are from Argentina and Mexico respectively, but they’ve both been at Barcelona since they were barely out of diapers. Of course, Barcelona have also produced a couple of youngsters that have since flown the coop – Arsenal duo Cesc Fabregas and Fran Merida, both scooped away prematurely by the wily Arsene Wenger. Fabregas, just 20, is already proving his worth in the Arsenal first team while Merida, still only 17 has yet to make the breakthrough. Then there’s the “Little Buddha”, Ivan De La Pena, now pulling the midfield strings at Espanyol. He also came through as a teenage wonder at Barcelona in the mid-90s before traipsing all over Europe and finally settling down at the other Barcelona club.
I can’t think of any other top European club with such an impressive turn out of young talent.
1 comment:
This one I agreed with you. Ajax used to be good with his youth program in the past. But these days, I don't know what's going on with them. Nonetheless, Frank R's knowledge of the Dutch system might have helped in Barcelona's success with its youth team now.
Arsenal is also another team that one should give kudos to for its excellent youth program. I saw its Youth team playing in the Carling Cup last week or so. I was really impressed with the players and quality of play that I saw.
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