Former Barcelona scout Bojan Krkic Sr. says his recommendations to sign Thibaut Courtois and Raphael Varane when both were virtual unknowns were ignored by the Catalan club's technical staff.
Krkic, the father of the former Barca prodigy and current Stoke City attacker Bojan, worked for some years on a consultancy basis for the Blaugrana and submitted reports to sporting director Andoni Zubizarreta and other figures at the Camp Nou.
Krkic, who played for Red Star Belgrade in the 1980s, told Radio Barcelona that through his contacts he had become aware that Courtois, who had then just broken into the first team at Genk, was a top prospect.
"In my last year as a scout for the club [2011], an offer to sign Courtois came directly from Belgium," Krkic senior said. "He was already a starter at 19, and among his agents was a friend of mine, with whom I played with for Yugoslavia, who told me good things about him. We received various videos and I told him they made a good impression on me ... but in the end it did not work out."
Barca could have had Courtois for three million euros but just weeks later he joined Chelsea for around three times that amount, Krkic claimed.
"Courtois really wanted to come to Barca, and was ready to make the move, to play for the B team or to come on loan," he said. "We spoke about a fee of three million euros as he was an unknown goalkeeper. It was a very low price. A month later he signed for Chelsea. The case ended up in Zubi's office, in the video library or in his drawer."
Krkic also said he recommended that Barca sign Raphael Varane, who was then breaking into the first team at Ligue 1 side Lens, and was to join Real Madrid for 10 million euros in July 2011.
"They spoke to me about Varane, who was standing out," he said. "I said he was a player that [Barca] needed to follow seriously and that they should sign him. I gave the report to Albert Valentin [the club's current technical secretary]. He sent a scout to watch a Monaco vs. Lens game, but that report was not favourable and it ended there."
Ajax and Denmark midfielder Viktor Fischer was another player Krkic advised the club to sign, but they instead brought in Kiko Femenia, who left the Catalan club for Real Madrid Castilla in the summer of 2013 and is currently training without a contract at third-tier Hercules.
"We went to see two of [Fischer's] games with the under-16s, and he made a fantastic impression on me," he said. "I called [Barca's current professional football coordinator] Narcis Julia and told him that at 16 years old he would cost 1.4 million euros. They told me they would weigh it up, but they did nothing and instead signed Kiko Femenia.
"These three players [Courtois, Varane and Fischer] would together not have cost more than 10 million euros, and today they are all world class."