Is Munir Following The Same Path As Bojan?

Exactly a week after he turned 19, Munir El-Haddadi made his international debut for Spain at the 25,000-seater Ciutat de Valencia stadium against 76th-ranked Macedonia in a qualifying match for the Euro 2016.

With 13 minutes left on the clock, Munir replaced Koke to become the third youngest Barcelona player after Bojan Krkic and Josep Samitier to represent La Roja at the senior level (via totalbarca.com).

Munir was born to a Moroccan father who immigrated to Spain in a fishing boat aged 18 and a Spanish mother born in Melilla (an enclave of Spain located in the north coast of Africa). This meant he was eligible to represent both Spain and Morocco. Qatar were also rumored to have offered the player a deal to represent them at the 2022 World Cup, which Munir rejected.

Nonetheless, after Diego Costa was ruled out from Spanish’s team to face Macedonia, Del Bosque called up Munir from the U-21 squad. It is widely believed that the player was handed his debut in order to ensure his allegiance to the former world champions as Munir had picked up a knock in Barcelona’s win over Villareal.

Del Bosque refuted such claims though, saying, "We've opted for a home-grown option with Munir."

"We haven't made the decision so the player can't play for Morocco.

"…He's developing really well and we expect good things from him. We called him up as he was also currently based in the federation's complex."

After the match, Munir said that he had "no doubts about playing for Spain". His father told him to represent the country that calls upon his services first, which was Spain.

Munir had previously stated in an interview that he would represent Morocco if both the latter and Spain called for his services. But Morocco did not show much interest in the player although, according to their manager Badou Ezzaki, the Moroccan federation did hold talks with the player and his family.

Munir is an excellent talent. At 5ft 10in, he is a "diminutive attacker" with bags of skills up his armor. He ended the pre-season as Barcelona’s leading ‘scorer (with four strikes to his name) and Munir has already opened his La Liga scoring account for the season. "He can play both on the wing and in the centre. His awareness and movement is superb and is excellent at finding space," Cesc Fabregas was quoted as saying. Munir’s fellow teammate Ivan Rakitic believes "he is a young player who has no ceiling".

In the absence of Neymar and Suarez, Munir has been able to earn international recognition by spearheading Barcelona’s attack.

However, Munir’s initial career graph has started to reminiscent that of Bojan’s.

Bojan made his Barcelona debut at 17 and thrived under then-manager Frank Rijkaard who labelled the Spaniard as a "treasure".

Like Munir, Bojan was eligible to represent multiple nations (Spain and Serbia). With his spectacular form at Barcelona, Spain quickly called him up for a friendly against France but he withdrew from the team, citing a "panic attack". Bojan decided against going to the Euro 2008 as well, suffering from fatigue (via Goal).

He finally made his Spain debut against Armenia in a World Cup qualifier, coming on as a substitute, replacing Santi Cazorla. However, since officially pledging his career to the Spaniards, Bojan has not made a single appearance for the national team, succumbing to the pressure of European football.

"Overnight, I couldn’t even walk down the street," Bojan said. "I couldn’t go to a birthday party or to the cinema."

Under Guardiola, the situation became worse. After becoming the Barcelona manager in 2008, the former Spain international wanted Bojan to continue his development in the B team, which the player vehemently refused having made 48 appearances for the senior team the previous campaign.

Injuries and poor form marred Bojan’s career under Guardiola, who despite the ‘fall-out’, afforded a total of 4,927 minutes of football to Bojan between 2008 and 2011.

After stints at Milan, Ajax and AS Roma, Bojan was eventually was sold to Premier League side Stoke City in the summer for an undisclosed fee .

Barcelona have taken several steps to ensure Munir does not face the same fate as Bojan.

They did not try to rush his progress, with Munir’s B team debut coming only after he had turned 18. Yet, with lack of options available at Luis Enrique’s disposal and Munir impressing whenever he played, it became impossible not to include him in the first-team plans.

"Munir whizzes through the stages at a rate that's hard to keep track of", Enrique said (as per Marca ).

Luis Rojo of Marca has reported that "Barcelona are fully aware of the dangers that the player's rise to fame may entail and have been protecting the youngster from the press for some time now… as an added precaution, the possibility of definitively raising him up to the first team is not on the cards."

Moreover, it appears Munir was responded admirably well to a temporary promotion to the first-team with teammate Dani Alves saying the lad is a "role model to La Masia players" and he knows how to "act when you get to the first team".

But the national team call-up has made increased the attention of the media towards the former Ateltico Madrid youngster. And with the revelation that his buy-out clause is a mere €12 million, Munir’s future is anticipated to come under the spotlight, which could unsettle the player.

The report of a new, bumper contract is not encouraging as that could force an unwanted promotion of the player to the first team.

Spain’s assistant coach, Toni Grande, who has likened Munir to Raul, feels, it is important to be "careful with cases like Munir".

"In this sense, your environment (the club, family and friends) is more important to the selection in the team," Grande said.

All prodigies can’t have the same development route as Lionel Messi (i.e.- the progress of the players increases by playing with and against the best)- something Barcelona have realized.

But owing to many factors out of the influence of the club and the player, Munir could be coming under more pressure than he can handle. Impressive club form, questionable call-up to the national team and transfer rumors starting with a link to Arsenal could negative psychological effects on Munir.

Barcelona and Spain’s Football Federation need to be very careful as to how the plan to develop Munir from this stage.

As Pol Balletbo of Planet Deporte puts, "accelerating progress could undermine the player’s progression".

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