Gareth Barry

Written by Rob Eddy

England Player Profiles

Whether Gareth Barry thought he would ever be heading to a World Cup as a midfield lynchpin is debatable after starting his career as a defender at Aston Villa as well as enduring a four-year exile from the national squad after making his debut in 2000, but he has become an integral cog in Fabio Capello's England side.

 

 

 

Having captained England's Under-18 side, Aston Villa made their move to take him to Villa Park as a trainee back in 1997 and his career has gone from strength to strength.

 

He made his debut for the Villains towards the end of the 1997/98 season as a central defender, on the left of three alongside Gareth Southgate and Ugo Ehiogu.

 

The boy from Hastings went on to establish himself as a regular and the captain in the side before being switched to left-back, then to left midfield before finally arriving in the central midfield role he is accustomed to now.

 

Barry became the youngest player to appear in 300 Premier League games, usurping England colleague Frank Lampard in the record books, in October 2007 at the age of 26 years and 247 days.

 

At the end of that season he was hotly pursued by Liverpool, which led to open criticism of the manager Martin O'Neill by the player himself and, although he remained at the club, he was stripped of the captaincy.

 

Of course, he only remained at Villa Park for one more year before moving to Manchester City after making 441 appearances for Villa, scoring 52 goals along the way - and immediately endeared himself to his new club by scoring against arch-rivals United.

 

After making 27 appearances for the Under-21 side, Barry finally made his debut for the full England team as a substitute against Ukraine in May 2000 under Kevin Keegan, but failed to make the squad for the European Championships that summer.

 

The then-Villa captain only made a handful of appearances for Sven-Goran Eriksson, the last of which came in March 2003, before resigning himself to never playing for England again.

 

However, following the Swede's departure after the 2006 World Cup, new boss Steve McClaren recalled him to the side (as a substitute) against Spain in a friendly in 2007.

 

The apparent continued failure of Lampard and Steven Gerrard to work effectively as a midfield pairing and an injury to Owen Hargreaves in September 2007 gave Barry the chance to make the position his own - and he has never looked back.

 

The 29-year-old has now won 35 caps and will be looking to add to his two international goals this summer at the World Cup - and of course he was a regular penalty taker for Villa, which can do no harm, can it?

 

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