Former FC Barcelona player Bojan Krkic has blamed the treble winning Blaugrana boss Luis Enrique and for his failure at Roma.
The Spain international attacker said that the FC Barcelona boss played him out of position while the Giallorossi’s former sporting director Franco Baldini “disrespected” him.
Bojan, 24, came through the youth team ranks at Camp Nou before moving to the Stadio Olimpico in the summer of 2011 for a fee of around a 12 million.
However, the forward failed to justify his price tag over the course of a disappointing debut season in Italian capital scoring just 7 times in 40 appearance. He was then bundled off to AC Milan and spent another frustrating campaign on loan. FC Barcelona then decided to resign him and send him on loan to Ajax, a season that resulted in just 5 goals in 31 games, with the Blaugrana then deciding to offload him to Stoke City on a permanent deal.
Bojan believes that he could have flourished at Roma had he been properly managed.
a I’m finally being played in my own role, unlike in Italy,a he told the Corriere dello Sport.
a I’m a striker. At the most I can play just behind the forwards, but not as a winger. Luis Enrique didn’t know me well enough, I spent a complicated year working with him.”
a Later, I wasn’t part of the plans of the new coach [Zdenek Zeman]. And I had some problems with Baldini. On one day he was telling me to stay, on another that I may be sold. He disrespected me, that’s all.”
a But I’m grateful to Roma – they were the first club who opened their doors to me after Barcelona. It’s a shame that our paths should have parted the way they did.a
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Bojan dismissed the suggestion that Francesco Totti cast too large a shadow over the Roma attack, insisting that he had no problem with the iconic captain being the fulcrum of the front line.
“On the contrary,” he added. “When you play with him you’re the one who has to adapt, not the other way round. He’s outstanding.”