Stoke City striker Bojan Krkic says comparisons with Leo Messi hurt him at Barcelona.

Bojan came through the La Masia system.

He told BBC Sport: "In my first year I scored 10 goals in La Liga. Then people started saying 'yeah, the new Messi'. You can do nothing about this. In the end, I know my qualities and I know I'm not Messi. I'm Bojan. If people say 'this guy was not the new Messi', yeah I was not the new Messi."

On his departure from Barça, Bojan is proud of making the decision to move elsewhere.

"When I made the decision, I went with my head, not my heart. My heart said 'here is your home, it's your place'. You don't know that after Barcelona there is a really nice world. I opened the door to say 'thank you and I'm going to do my own way'."