Regulars on Rochdale’s tiny Sandy Lane terrace have witnessed fine moments in recent seasons as their team twice reached the heights of England’s third tier.
Rochdale, from a satellite town 12 miles north-east of Manchester, relished their run to this season’s FA Cup fourth round before Premier League side Stoke City eliminated them with a 4-1 victory on Monday night.
The pick of the goals was a volley from outside the area by Bojan Krkic, evidence of an in-form player enjoying his football after losing his way at some of Europe’s greatest clubs.
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Sadly, his supporters watched in dismay as the 24-year-old forward collapsed later in the same game while dribbling with the ball, rupturing his cruciate ligament. The Catalan will miss the rest of this season and his manager Mark Hughes said: “It’s bitterly disappointing for the club but even more so for Bojan himself as he was making such a big impact.”
Fellow forward Peter Crouch caught the mood when he tweeted: “Terrible news about Bojan, especially ‘cos he has been on fire recently. I’m certain he will come back stronger.”
Stoke fans certainly hope so. The cover of the latest Duck fanzine features Bojan with the Catalan flag and the words “El Petit Geni” (The Little Genius in Catalan).
“Bojan’s injury has hit Stoke’s support hard — he is worshipped,” says editor Anthony Bunn. “Why do we go to football, apart from to watch our team win? It’s because every now and then your team has a player that makes it so worthwhile, a player who puts a spring in your step as you walk to the Britannia Stadium on a freezing afternoon.
“Alan Hudson, Jimmy Greenhoff, Mark Chamberlain, Mark Stein, and Ricardo Fuller were in that category. Add Bojan Krkic to that list.”
The son of a Serbian former professional footballer and a Catalan mother, Krkic was blessed with so much potential as a free scoring youngster rising through Barcelona’s youth system that he was tipped to follow Lionel Messi, the man whose record he broke for becoming the club’s youngest player at 17. After that 2007 debut, Bojan played over 100 times for Barca’s first team in his teens.
He was a regular in Frank Rijkaard’s final season as manager at Camp Nou and Pep Guardiola first two years, but chances diminished and he was a non-playing substitute in Barca’s 2009 and 2011 Champions League final successes against Manchester United.
Bojan thought Guardiola had broken a promise for him to feature in the second final and left on loan to Italian side Roma soon after in a complex deal which cost the Italian club a €12 million (Dh49.75m) fee.
He had mixed success before moving to AC Milan in 2012 and back to Barcelona in 2013. Bojan spent 2013/14 at Ajax before joining Stoke for a €1.8m fee in July 2014, with doubts that his diminutive frame would not be suitable for the Premier League.
He has since gained three kilograms of muscle and proved doubters wrong and Stoke fans sing “Ole, Ole, Ole, Ole, Bojan, Bojan”.
“My six-year-old son is mesmerised by Bojan, he watches him rather than the game,” says Bunn.
“In just half a season we’ve seen sublime talent only the very best have and only the supremely gifted can make look so easy and natural. Players like him simplify the game; they don’t make it look harder than it already is.”
Now they won’t see him play until next season.
“In the Bojan-less months ahead,” says Bunn, “we can remember the day he did with Arsenal what he wanted to; his electrifying goal at Spurs heralding his entry into the Premier League; we can picture his winner at Leicester and subsequent love-in with the away end; and his parting shot of his amazing volley at Rochdale.”
Stoke march on in the Cup, sadly without their little No 27.
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