Background and career
John Charles Bryan Barnes (born 7 November 1963) is a former professional football player and manager. Often considered one of the greatest England players of all time and one of Liverpool's greatest ever players, Barnes works as an author, as well as a commentator and pundit for ESPN and SuperSport. Initially he was a quick and skilful left winger, then he moved to central midfield later in his career. Barnes won two League titles and two FA Cups with Liverpool. Born in Jamaica, he represented England and won 79 international caps for the England national team. Barnes was born and raised in Jamaica as the son of a military officer from Trinidad and Tobago and a Jamaican mother. He moved to London, England, with his family when he was 12 years old. He joined Watford aged 17 in 1981, before playing 296 competitive games for them, scoring 85 goals. He debuted for England in 1983, and in 1987 joined Liverpool for £900,000. In his ten seasons there, Liverpool won the then-top-flight First Division twice and the FA Cup twice. He scored 106 goals in 403 matches. By the time of his last cap, in 1995, he had more caps than any other black England player. After two years at Newcastle United, he ended his playing career at Charlton Athletic in 1999. Barnes had eight months as Celtic head coach when his former Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish was director of football. He has since managed the Jamaica national team, in 2008–09, and English club Tranmere Rovers, for four months in 2009. Barnes was the PFA Players' Player of the Year once (in 1987–88) and the Football Writers' Association Footballer of the Year twice (in 1987–88 and 1989–90). In 2005, he was inducted into the English Football Hall of Fame. In 2006, in a poll of Liverpool fans' favourite players, Barnes came fifth; a year later, FourFourTwo magazine named him Liverpool's best all-time player. In 2016, The Times readers voted him England's greatest-ever left-footed player. Barnes has published two books: John Barnes: The Autobiography (1999), which was followed by The Uncomfortable Truth About Racism (2021), both of which were met with a largely positive reception. In 2022, he returned to Liverpool as an official Club Ambassador.
Barnes was born in Jamaica to Roderick Kenrick "Ken" Barnes (a Trinidadian) and Frances Jeanne Hill (a Jamaican). Ken Barnes hailed from Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago emigrating to Jamaica in 1956 as a member of the West India Regiment. He joined the Jamaica Defence Force when formed after the nation's 1962 independence when he was initially commanding officer of the 1st Battalion Jamaica Regiment. In 1973, he was promoted to colonel remaining in the army until retiring in 1989. While in the army, he was a semi-professional footballer for a Jamaica National Premier League club and also captained the Jamaica national football team. Barnes spent his early childhood living in Jamaica's biggest military base, playing football and living a disciplined life. His father was president of the Jamaica Amateur Swimming Association and later formed Jamaica's first bobsleigh team. Barnes' father was a huge squash and football fan who encouraged his son to pursue sports, having named him after Welsh footballer John Charles. Ken Barnes, who was promoted to Colonel in 1973, was appointed Defence adviser to the High Commission of Jamaica, London (1976–1981), and Barnes moved to London with his family in January 1976, when he was 12 years old. He attended the rugby-playing St Marylebone Grammar School then a short stint at Haverstock School, Camden Town. While at school he played four years of youth football at the Stowe Boys Club in Paddington. Barnes mother, Frances Jeanne Hill, was the daughter of journalist, politician and trade unionist, Frank Hill, who had been imprisoned by the Jamaican governor, Sir Arthur Richards in 1942, along with his brother Ken, after being accused of trying to overthrow the government. Jeanne herself was arrested in 1964 when she took part in a demonstration against political bias at the Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation.
Barnes was noticed by Watford as a teenager while playing for Middlesex League club Sudbury Court. Following a successful trial game in Watford's reserves, Barnes signed on 14 July 1981 for the fee of a set of kits. Barnes debuted aged 17 as a substitute on 5 September 1981 in a Football League Second Division 1–1 home draw with Oldham Athletic. With manager Graham Taylor, Watford were eight months away from completing a five-year rise from the Fourth Division to the First. Barnes quickly established himself as a regular player and scored 12 Second Division goals as Watford were promoted, as runners-up to fierce rivals Luton Town to the top flight of English football at the end of season 1981–82. Watford finished runners-up for the League title to Liverpool the season after. Watford lost the 1984 FA Cup final as under-dogs 2–0 to Everton. Watford lost a 1986–87 FA Cup semi-final to Tottenham Hotspur. At the end of the 1986–87 season, Taylor called time on his 10-year spell as Watford manager to take charge at Aston Villa. His successor, Dave Bassett, resigned to losing Barnes to a bigger club, gave Alex Ferguson the chance to sign Barnes for Manchester United. Ferguson rejected the offer still having faith in United's left winger Jesper Olsen. Ferguson later admitted that he regretted not signing Barnes, especially as Barnes helped extend Liverpool's dominance in England by three seasons, while Olsen fell out of favour at Old Trafford and had left by the end of 1988, with his successors Ralph Milne and Danny Wallace failing to live up to expectations. Ferguson's United waited until 1990 to win a major trophy and 1993 to win the league title. Barnes left Watford after scoring 65 goals in 233 league appearances.
Barnes arrived at Kenny Dalglish's Liverpool in the same close season as England teammate Peter Beardsley and linked up with new signings John Aldridge and Ray Houghton. He signed for the club on 9 June 1987. He debuted for the Reds along with Beardsley on 15 August in the 2–1 league win at Arsenal at Highbury. After nine minutes, Barnes and Beardsley combined to set up Aldridge to score. Barnes' first Liverpool goal was on 12 September beating Oxford United 2–0 at Anfield.
In Barnes' first Liverpool season, they won the League title, remaining undefeated for the first twenty-nine games of the season. Barnes' fifteen Liverpool league goals in his first season there was second only to John Aldridge. The 2–1 defeat at Nottingham Forest on 2 April was the last of only two league defeats that season. Eleven days later, Barnes, Beardsley, Houghton and Aldridge were instrumental in Liverpool's 5–0 home win over Forest described by Tom Finney as "One of the finest exhibition I've seen the whole time I've played and watched the game. You couldn't see it bettered anywhere, not even in Brazil." The double however was thwarted by Lawrie Sanchez' Wimbledon goal beating Liverpool 1–0 in the 1988 FA Cup final. Barnes was a key performer on the "Anfield Rap"; the club's cup final song that UK charted at number 3. In recognition of his stellar displays throughout the season, Barnes was voted PFA Player of the Year, finishing ahead of his Liverpool teammate Steve McMahon. In the summer of 1988, Ian Rush re-signed for Liverpool. Following the death of 96 Liverpool fans in April 1989 as a result of the Hillsborough disaster, Barnes attended several funerals and visited the injured in hospital. He pulled out of an England international friendly in order to fulfil these public duties. Liverpool won the 1989 FA Cup final with a 3–2 victory over Merseyside rivals Everton, with Barnes creating goals from the left wing for Rush. In the 1988–89 title decider at Anfield, Arsenal's Michael Thomas' 92nd minute, league winning goal occurred in their counter-attack 17 seconds after Barnes lost ball possession attempting to dribble past Kevin Richardson.
Barnes played in the 1990 title winning side at Liverpool and scored 22 league goals from the left wing – the highest goal tally of his career. Ian Rush scored four fewer league goals than Barnes. Barnes was voted the Football Writers' Association Footballer of the Year for the second time (having also won it in 1988), and expectations from England manager Bobby Robson were also high, seeing Barnes as a key component in the buildup to the 1990 FIFA World Cup. Beardsley has since said Barnes at the end of the 1980s was "The best player I ever played with, bar none. For three or four years at the end of the '80s, John was possibly the best player in the world." Barnes continued to play regularly for Liverpool and England into the 1990s. In the 1990–91 season, he scored 16 league goals. Arsenal were league champions in the season of Dalglish's resignation and his replacement by Graeme Souness as manager. Liverpool had qualified for the 1991–92 UEFA Cup, being readmitted to European competitions a year after the ban on all other English clubs in European competitions since the Heysel disaster in 1985 had been lifted. This was the first time Barnes had played in European competitions since Watford's 1983–84 UEFA Cup campaign.
