Top 60 John Barnes Quotes

I’m desperate to work in football. I could make a lot more money doing other things but this is what I want to do.

I don’t see why black should be a negative and it’s not negative. The people perpetrating that particular thought are wrong.

For most footballers, they just have to give their all for 90 minutes two times a week, and apart from a few training sessions spend the rest of the time resting. They only train intensively for six weeks before the new season.

No, I never drink beer. I’ve never had a pint of lager in my life.

What I say about myself, black footballers or black pop stars is that we have been ‘elevated out of blackness.’ Because when people see us, they don’t see us as being black. These are the issues that we should address.

Generally speaking, ego isn’t a good thing. Humility is the most important quality in a human being.

As I’ve been saying for decades, as long as racism exists in society, it will exist in all facets of society. Until we eradicate it from society, football will be like any other industry.

If you are black then you have to be better than your white counterpart to be equal. That’s life.

You love football because of the game, not because of some idiot who is going to shout at your from across the street.

I am no different from a lot of people. I am concerned for the future of my children and concerned for the future of all children.

I don’t really eat biscuits.

There is no right or wrong way of playing football.

For a long time, images of black men with big lips and a round head were used to make us feel inferior, but it doesn’t need to be like that, we don’t need to self’loathe. We can change the narrative.

While we have to take personal responsibility for our actions, I have a great deal of empathy for people who are unconsciously racially biased, and indeed count myself among their number.

I don’t differentiate between racism in football to racism in life so, therefore, as a football manager I knew that I would get racist abuse.

Racism is never personal – it’s about someone saying the group I am part of is superior to the group you are part of.

Mass migration and the refugee crisis is one of the biggest problems facing the world. In this country we assume that everyone just wants to come to the U.K. – but it’s an issue in Germany, Greece, Sweden, all across the E.U. Why should we be the first to turn our backs on the problem?

Yes, I went through overt racism as a footballer in the 80s and early 90s but that was, or is, nothing compared to what the average black person in the inner cities of England goes through every day.

We all have preconceptions of people based on what we have been told about them and their race and ethnicity.

I was a real fast food junkie – KFC, McDonald’s – but all the training kept it off.

I think Hazard influences the team so much that anywhere he goes you have to give him the ball.

Normally when you look at the Ballon d’Or winners, they’re either attacking midfield players or centre-forwards. They are goalscorers and eye-catching players.

We have to look at it holistically and as a whole and say let us tackle racism or discrimination in life. Then you can look to get rid of it in football.

African society and culture varies much more than European society but it’s just considered ‘Africa’ as if they are all the same.

We should be the first to help disadvantaged people. What would happen if other countries decided to follow our example?

If you are forced to give someone an opportunity when you don’t want to, that’s going to turn you even more against it.

For a team like Brighton, just being in the Premier League is important. That is the name of the game.

If Arsene Wenger came down to League Two he would have to adapt, he couldn’t work in the same way he works at Arsenal.

We have to deconstruct the idea of racial superiority. We have had it for hundreds of years so it is not going to happen overnight but we have to tackle it in the right way.

Talking about what any one section of our society has to do to combat racism just stops people outside that group asking difficult questions of themselves. We keep looking at symptoms and not treating the cause.

Football is all about scoring goals.

I’ve never bought a pint of milk in my life.

How many black people are there in the higher echelons of any industry? We can talk about journalism, we can talk about politics. So why should football be any different?

My dad came from Trinidad to Jamaica when he was 19. He had to go to Jamaica to join the British regiment, where it was based. After Sandhurst, he returned to the Caribbean as a junior lieutenant, based in Jamaica. He met my mum and became a Jamaican citizen.

I used to think you had to be very selfish, but as I get older my views on life change.

Until we change our perception of a BAME person’s capabilities, in all walks of life, we will be given less opportunities and less time to succeed.

I grew up in a middle-class family in Jamaica, I had no self-worth issues whatsoever.

The racism I am really interested in stamping out is in everyday life. Joe Bloggs, who nobody knows, walks down the street and gets racially abused. He goes into a shop and people think he is going to steal something. He cannot get a job.

Very much like a disease, we have to tackle the cause of racism, not the symptoms.

If you believe you always have to sign players and the players start to believe that, that’s when you lose matches.

Once you have players you like and a good enough squad there’s no need to spend money.

I’m a big believer in fate.

I got racist abuse at Liverpool when I played for Watford. Then I played for Liverpool and didn’t get it. If I had played for Everton against Liverpool then maybe the Liverpool fans would have racially abused me.

There wasn’t a game in the Eighties when you didn’t get racial abuse as a black player.

People have been taught not just to have a negative perception of black people, but to have a belief in the superiority of white people. Their behaviour is the result of centuries of indoctrination.

Policing language and even legislating against certain behaviours will only go so far to address the pervasive problem of racial bias. To get at the root cause we must have open, honest and sometimes painful conversations.

When you score a goal by dribbling you don’t remember it because it is instinctive.

I think Liverpool, when Coutinho left, they were a much better team.

Yes, you have people shouting racist abuse and throwing bananas on the field, and there are issues regarding the number of black coaches and managers in the game, but which other industry allows a young black boy the exact same opportunity as a young white boy?

The truth is that those at the top of British football do not care about getting rid of racism, they just don’t want to hear it or see it.

Football is a socialist sport. Financially, some may receive more rewards than others but, from a footballing perspective, for 90 minutes, regardless of whether you are Lionel Messi or the substitute right-back for Argentina, you are all working to the same end.

The teams which embrace the socialist ideology rather than having superstars, are the teams that are successful. Or if there are superstars they don’t perceive themselves to be that. That’s why I use Messi as an example. As much as he’s a superstar he respects his team-mates and their collective efforts.

My dad was a proper old English gentleman, even though he was from the Caribbean. He used to stand up and salute during the Queen’s Christmas speech.

If you want to consider yourself one of the best teams, you need to be as close to the top as possible.

I’m a real meat eater.

Yes, my clothes don’t reflect my personality at all. Because I’m a very straightforward and serious person. My clothes are much flasher than I am. Yeh. Yeh, yeh. It’s a good contrast. I don’t think your clothes should reflect your personality… keep people on their toes.

The only fight worth fighting is to give all children equal opportunities regardless of race or gender, to judge individuals on their qualities and not their backgrounds. The victory won’t come when nobody feels able to voice racist abuse, but when nobody thinks of doing so in the first place.

I give balanced, constructive views and what happens is that bits and pieces of what I say are used against me.

Most people would accept that we are, to a certain extent, products of our environment.

I felt I had to take the Celtic opportunity. You quickly learn that any managerial vacancy attracts up to 60 or 70 applicants, so you need a good reason to turn a job down. A start is a start.