Joey
Barton started his senior football career in 2002 with
A
true professional in every sense of the word, Barton is often well known for
his angelic behaviour on and off the field.
You would perhaps describe him as the dash of milk on top of a freshly
made cup of tea, just cooling the heat down gently, when others around him are
boiling over.
Good
Samaritan Barton is not just a friend within football but also outside fast
food joints, where he can often be seen breaking up unnecessary fights when any
security provided by nightclub doormen is long gone. 33 year old Barton has
also spent some time in prison where he helps offenders overcome their
difficulties and give them hope for the future and in 2008 he kindly agreed to
work unpaid for 200 hours, in a bid perhaps, to suggest that not all
footballers are overpaid wankers.
The
Liverpool born midfielder is great with
youngsters from all walks of life. In December 2004, at City’s Christmas bash,
Barton caught one of the youth team players smoking a cigar and explained to
him politely that smoking was bad for the players health and that it would ruin
his aspiring football career. Barton’s
way to get this message across was to stub the cigar out in his eye, choosing
this technique over the other popular method of making him smoke a whole packet
until he feels sick. The kid was thankful for Barton’s intervention, even
though his career was to slowly diminish after that.
Another incident the
following summer earned the city man more plaudits, this time away on a
pre-season tour of Thailand
They
say there is no such thing as a friendly in football and Joey Barton can vouch
for that. In a pre-season friendly at Doncaster in 2004 Barton thought he’d
make the game a little more competitive and decided to spark a brawl by hacking
at an opposition player; just a good natured thing to do to make the game that
little bit more interesting, not just for the players, but spectators too.
It’s not just on the field that Joey’s good to have around. In the dressing room and training ground he’s always laughing and joking with the lads and organising a prank or two. On one funny occasion at City he decided to sneak up slowly on French team mate Ousmane Dabo and assault him, punching him several times in the face resulting in Dabo suffering a detached retina, much to the amusement of players and staff looking on. Determined to get his own back on his prankster colleague, Dabo decided to land the Scouser in court suing him for assault. I suppose you could say just your everyday training ground tom foolery.
Barton’s
performances on the pitch have always earned him many plaudits, the vision and
finesse of his passing being the central focus, but Barton can certainly put in
a good tackle as well, often holding his own against the toughest tackling
midfielders. If Barton does miss time a tackle and commit a foul he’s quick to
hold his hands up and take his punishment, often checking to see if the player
lying on the ground is ok.
In
his spare time Barton, unlike many professional footballers prefers to stay out
of the limelight and keep a low profile. Barton is a person who likes to keep
his thoughts and opinions to himself, only going on twitter three times a day
and running a small website called www.joeybarton.com.
Having only picked up a mere 6 red cards and 84 yellow in his career, most of which were due to the referees’ incompetence, Barton can only be described as great ambassador for the game. He has become a huge role model for youngsters looking to become proffessional footballers and as Barton would no doubt say if there is a ball to be won, take the player instead.
