A
day in the life of Jim Barber, Scottish Footballer
Jim Barber is a centre forward for Glasgow Rangers football club.
He talks to Paul Sullivan about a typical day in his life.
I don’t usually
get up till 8.30. On a match day I’ll get up even later. I’ll sit
in bed, watch breakfast TV for a while, and then I’ll go down, get
the mail, have a coffee and read the papers. I’ll have a wash and
then I’ll get ready to go to the club. Rangers is probably the only
club where the players have to come in every morning wearing a shirt
and tie; it’s a traditional thing and I quite like it really.
Every day except
Sunday, I’ll be at the club by 10. It’s a short drive but I’ll still
usually be a few minutes late. I’ve a bad reputation for being late,
and I’ve been fined many times. Each day of training is in preparation
for the next match. We’ll do some weight training and some running
to build up stamina. Players work on particular aspects of the game
but tactics are usually left till match day.
After training
I’ll usually have a sauna and then we’ll have lunch: salads and
pasta, stuff like that. In the afternoon I just try to relax. I
started playing golf with the rest of the lads, and I love horse
racing, too. My other great hobby is music which helps me to escape
the pressure of work.
The best thing
in football is scoring goals - and I’m a top goal-scorer. It feels
absolutely fantastic but I never feel above the rest of the team;
if I did, I wouldn’t last two minutes in the dressing room. Any
success I have is a team success. My idol in the past was always
Kenny Dalglish. My idols now are the other Rangers players.
The matches
themselves are always different from each other. You go through
a lot of emotions during a game but really it’s a question of concentration.
You’ve got just 90 minutes to give everything you’ve got and take
every chance you can. There’s luck and there’s being in the right
place at the right time, but you can’t make use of those without
concentration and responsibility.
Sports writers
often talk about age but it’s not something that bothers me. I’m
30 and feel fantastic. I missed a few games last year due to injury
and my place was taken by a young player at Rangers. We are friends
but he is a threat to my position. My job is to score goals and
if I don’t I’ll be replaced.
I try not to
let football rule my home life but my wife would probably disagree;
last year we only got three weeks’ holiday. It’s difficult for Allison,
my wife, but I think she’s learned to accept it. She likes football
and comes to the matches. I do like to go out and see friends but
I always have dinner with my wife.
We’ll usually
go to bed about midnight. Sometimes I do worry when I think of the
day it all ends and I stop scoring. That scares me and I can’t see
myself playing for any other team, either, but the reality is that
the players don’t make the decisions. If someone makes your club
a good enough offer for you, they’ll accept it. But I try not to
let things like that bother me. |
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