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. |
