Borjan Krkic, once touted to be as good as Messi, signs for Stoke

The kid once touted as good as a certain Lionel Messi has signed for Stoke City from Barcelona on Tuesday (July 22)

Bojan Krkic, 23, has signed a four-year- contract with the English Premier League side, a move which they understandably celebrated.

#WelcomeBojan #BienvenidoBojan pic.twitter.com/ByOjZFTDm2

— Stoke City FC (@stokecity) July 22, 2014

 While not a slight on Stoke as a football club, Krkic was once touted for greater heights than the Potters (Stoke's nickname.)

After all, when he made his debut for Barcelona at just 17 in 2007,  he had earned almost 900 goals scored at youth level.

Unfortunately for him, when he made his debut he was pushing into a Barcelona team that had the likes of Ronaldinho, Thierry Henry, Samuel Eto'o and of course Lionel Messi.

While he made an impression in his first season, scoring 12 goals from 48 appearances, the following four seasons weren't kind to him.

Football

Griezmann snubs Barca to stay at Atletico

Jun 15, 2018

The goals and appearances for the Catalan club dried up, scoring seven goals in the 2011 season, which incidentally was his last appearance on the Barcelona first team.

He was then loaned out to various clubs in Europe, but his fortunes did not improve.

At least Krkic would be joining a team that is ambitious. Stoke recently signed four new players Mame Biram Diouf, Steve Sidwell, Phil Bardsley and Dionatan Teixeira.

Good luck Bojan. 

Source: AFP, Stoke City Website, Barcelona Website