The former Barcelona footballer Bojan Krkic explained this Monday that he suffered “in the first person” what he now “lives Ansu Fati“In the Barça team, as it happens with the Spanish-Guinean striker, he has also developed many expectations that are sometimes difficult to meet.
“There is a big difference in treatment between the illusion created at first when everything is fine compared to when things go wrong due to injury or for any other reason. The players are treated as a product” , he claimed boy.
The former Barça soccer player gave a speech today on the first day of the Sports Tomorrow Congress, an event organized by the Barça club within the framework of the MWC, the mobile world congress held in the Catalan capital.
“From being a person to being a character. At the age of 17 I had to compete against the label of ‘new Messi‘. You learn to move away from these external labels and know what your limitations are and accept them,” he added.
boythe first Spanish player to score goals in four major European leagues, suffered from the high expectations placed on him when he was promoted to Barcelona’s first team in 2007 after showing great promise in the lower categories.
“It’s hard to manage. What’s great about you at that moment is you don’t know what you’re building into. You’re fulfilling a dream as a kid. I didn’t realize the magnitude of that scenario I was walking into. at the age of 17” , admitted the footballer.
In this sense, he said that “the first year in Barcelona was very good on a professional level, but very difficult on a personal level”.
In the summer of 2008 there was the Eurocup and the Spanish federation called him to call him up. So boy made one of the most important decisions of his life: “I was very clear that I could not go. I was experiencing a time of anxiety and I decided not to go. The day before the call I had Luis Aragonesthe coach, and I explained it to him”.
The Spanish team would win that Euro Cup, but the football player from Linyola did not regret it. “I never felt regret, because I knew the situation I was in. For me, overcoming this situation is more important than winning the Eurocup,” he said.
boy He has been going to the psychologist since he was 13 years old, when clubs still did not value mental health. “Things, luckily, have changed a lot. When I started, it didn’t exist in clubs. I do it despite Barça”, he explained.
And this is it, for boy“more and more young talents are exposed to professional football” and “the focus given externally to these players must change”.
“You have to create a scenario so that this person has a process of time so that he can consolidate in the first team of Barcelona,” he concluded. Bojan Krkicwho besides playing in Spanish football (Barcelona and Alavés), has played for clubs in Italy (Rome, Milan), England (Stoke City), Germany (Mainz), Netherlands (Ajax), Canada (Montreal) and currently plays in Japan (Vissel Kobe).
Source: La Verdad
I am Shawn Partain, a journalist and content creator working for the Today Times Live. I specialize in sports journalism, writing articles that cover major sporting events and news stories. With a passion for storytelling and an eye for detail, I strive to be accurate and insightful in my work.
