Senior Barcelona starlet Alen Halilovic revealed that leaving the club in 2016 was the biggest mistake of his career.
Halilovic was kicked out of boyhood club Dinamo Zagreb in 2014, shortly after his 18th birthday, after bursting onto the scene in Croatia.
The skilful midfielder has been tipped for a bright future and an ideal fit by Luis Enrique long-term midfield plans if his progression continued.
Arriving at the start of a campaign where Barcelona won a treble meant that Halilovic stayed with the B team for the 2014/15 season.
He accepted a long-term loan at Sporting Gijon for the following campaign in an effort to build his The league experience
However, after returning to Barcelona, he took the opportunity to join the Bundesliga in Hamburg, with his first team opportunity still limited in Catalonia.
That switch started a nomadic tour across Europe for Haliliovic as he struggled for regular game time and his injury problems began to mount.
Spells in Spain, Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands and the second tier in England followed, before joining Dutch side Fortuna Sittard at the start of the 2023/24 season.
From a highly regarded teenage star, to a struggling veteran, Halilovic believes his exit from Barcelona changed everything in his career.
“I wanted to show that I could play like Modric or Messi, but football does not work like that. To boys of 16 or 17 years, who experience something similar, I advise them to focus on enjoying playing football”, according to an interview with Brand.
“Barca, because of his style, was the only club where I thought he could make the leap as a footballer.
“I should have listened to Barça and stayed on loan in La Liga. However, I felt that I was ready to play in the first team and I decided to go abroad. If I could change one thing in my career, it would be to have contained in Spain”.
