John Barnes: ‘Kabul isn't a place you imagine going on holiday'

Times

2 days ago

John Barnes, 61, is one of England's most celebrated footballers. Born in Kingston, Jamaica, he moved to London when he was 12 and spent most of his playing career at Watford and Liverpool, earning 79 England caps. He is a pundit and campaigner and was awarded the MBE in 1998 for his services to football. He lives in Heswall, in the Wirral, with his wife, Andrea, and children, Isabella, 20, Tia, 19, and Alexander, 14.
Football has taken me to 92 countries — almost half the world. Some of those trips, to places such as Somalia and Rwanda, leave a deeper mark. In Rwanda I met boys the same age as my kids who had been child soldiers. You hear their stories and realise that they didn't choose that life — soldiers came, killed their families, gave them guns and drugs and told them to fight. You can't judge them; you just feel grateful for what you have.
But I've never needed tragedy to understand what matters. After the Hillsborough disaster in 1989 a lot of players said they re-evaluated things, but I already knew that football wasn't the most important thing in life.
Kabul, the Afghan capital, isn't the kind of place you imagine going on holiday, but when I went there with the UN to coach children I was struck by how beautiful it was. The city stands in a natural amphitheatre surrounded by the snow-capped Hindu Kush, as though it's inside a vast football stadium.
People imagine that growing up in Jamaica must have felt like a holiday, but when you live there it's just normal life. We weren't by the beach — we lived in a big house on an army base in Kingston, because my dad was a colonel. He was also the national boxing champion, played squash and football for the country and ended up being president of the Jamaican Football Federation and Swimming Association. My sister played squash for the national team and I swam competitively, but I was always kicking a ball and would even fall asleep with one in bed. If no one was around I'd just kick one against a wall, usually breaking something in the process.
We moved to London in 1976. One day a taxi driver happened to see me playing football and told a scout about me, and within weeks I was training with Watford. That was six months before we were scheduled to go back to Jamaica. I'd already accepted a scholarship to study international relations at Howard University in Washington DC; then Watford offered me a contract, and that was that.
I was in the first team within two months and two years later I was playing for England, on a Jamaican passport — no one ever asked (my dad was a diplomat so we hadn't emigrated). Every time we travelled for matches I'd be stuck in a separate immigration queue while the team waited on the coach. Eventually, I got a British passport.
These days my wife organises everything to do with our travels — I just show up in a sunhat. We went to Bali when our daughter was a week old and the locals made such a fuss of her. In their culture babies are considered divine beings until they reach three months, so seeing a newborn was a huge deal for them. We stayed near Seminyak, right on the beach — it was paradise.
That is one reason that the Maldives is so great too — turquoise water, white sand and nothing to do but relax. My next stop there, at the end of the month, is with the Campioni Soccer Academy on Kuramathi Island, where I run coaching sessions for children while their parents sip pina coladas — it's not serious, but occasionally I do spot a talented player and pass their name on.
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I don't have a travel bucket list. My wife wants to go to Hawaii, so we probably will. Personally I just want to tick off more countries and get that count over 50 per cent, even if it means flying somewhere obscure just to say I've been there. That said I'd love to go to Argentina, to La Bombonera, Boca Juniors' stadium, for a derby match against River Plate — that's where Maradona used to play, whipping the crowd into a frenzy, and I want to feel that South American intensity for myself.
My favourite country? South Africa, hands down. I've done the Garden Route to Durban and spent time in Johannesburg, but it's Cape Town that does it for me, particularly Camps Bay, with the Atlantic on one side and the Indian Ocean on the other. If you want to ski, surf and hike, it's all there in South Africa — and the favourable exchange rate makes it unbeatable too.
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And then there's Anfield in Liverpool. It's not the biggest stadium in the world, but it's the most intense and you feel it in your chest. The beauty of football is that it connects people everywhere — whether you're on a pitch in a refugee camp or a private beach, kids just want to play. That's the magic, and why — despite all the places I've been — the biggest buzz for me still comes from sitting on my sofa watching the first game of the season.
Campioni Soccer Academy will be at Kuramathi Maldives from July 28 to August 8, with John Barnes and his fellow former England player Stuart Pearce (campioni.co.uk). For more on the resort see kuramathi.com