Bojan Krkic

Bojan Krkic Perez is a Spanish footballer of Serbian descent who currently plays for German Bundesliga side Mainz 05, on loan from English Premier League club Stoke City.

The striker started his youth career in the famed La Masia football academy at FC Barcelona. He graduated to the Barcelona B team in 2006-07 where he scored 10 goals in 22 appearances in the Spanish second tier.

Bojan was handed a ticket to the Barcelona first team in 2007. He made 104 league appearances for the senior side between 2007 and 2011 during which he scored 26 goals before ending his long association with the Catalan giants.

His full debut for Barcelona came in the 2007-08 season when he replaced Giovanni dos Santos in the 78th minute of a game against Osasuna. He broke Lionel Messi’s record of being the youngest Barcelona player to play in La Liga. Only three days later on 19 September 2007, Bojan made his Champions League debut for Barca.

His first start in the league came on October 20, 2007 in an away game against Villarreal. Bojan would go on to score in the 25th minute of the contest. It would be his first goal as a professional footballer at the top level. He scored a total of 10 goals in his debut season, the most for a striker on his debut season in La Liga.

The following season would see Barcelona win the treble with Pep Guardiola as their manager. While Bojan struggled for form during the La Liga season, he scored five times in a victorious campaign for the Catalans in the Copa Del Rey. The striker was an unused substitute in the Champions League final against Manchester United.

After an unimpressive couple of seasons between 2009 and 2011, Bojan was sold to Roma for 12 million Euros. He scored seven goals in 33 league appearances for Roma in his only season with the club before signing another loan deal with AC Milan in 2012. He scored thrice in 19 games for the Rossoneri before Barcelona activated the buy-back option in his contract.

However, the forward left on loan once again and this time his destination was Ajax Amsterdam. In a bid to rebuild his career, Bojan chose Ajax, a club that has a history of producing some fine attacking players down the years. His time at Ajax did not bear fruit on a personal level as he managed to score just five goals from 32 appearances for the Dutch giants as they went on to win the league title.

That did not stop Stoke City from signing the former prodigy for a cut price 1.8 million Euros in the summer of 2014. His first goal for Stoke came in a 2-1 win at White Hart Lane where Stoke beat Spurs. He also managed to score in a 3-2 win over Arsenal in his debut season with Stoke signing him to a long-term deal in February 2015.

His form started to tail off soon afterwards as injuries took their toll on his body. With the player playing just five league games in the first part of the 2016-17 season, Bojan sealed a loan move to Mainz on January 29, 2017.