Here you go...
A kid went out, made his debut as if the Premier League were nothing more than a kickabout and then returned home to play in the street. This was Liverpool, 2002, and in 2011 another kid did the same.
Wavertree, Ross Barkley’s part of town, is more central and slightly more salubrious than Croxteth, the outlying estate where Wayne Rooney was raised, but we’re talking degrees of ordinariness. Barkley and Rooney, Everton tyros nine years apart, are the same unvarnished wonder boys who take the Scouse alleyway on to the pitch, be it a training field or Wembley.
Whether Barkley can quite equal Rooney is unlikely, maybe, but academy coaches who tutored both believe he can get close. And Barkley, daunted by nothing, doesn’t see why he shouldn’t try.
“When I played against QPR [his debut] I went home and then I was playing in the street with my mum’s best mate’s little lad,” says Barkley, nodding that he was “just like” the young Rooney, who had been seen out with a ball or on his BMX in Croxteth’s streets just hours after acts of brilliance at Goodison Park.
Indeed Rooney, Frank Lampard and Zinedine Zidane were the idols Barkley pretended to be back when “even after my mum hauled me in I was watching telly or on the internet to get more football and if my ball popped in the street I made her buy another one”.
Now he’s again imagining being Rooney. He isn’t afraid of hopes that at the World Cup he might be like Rooney was at Euro 2004, a young, forceful, brilliant bundle of X factor, rampaging through a tournament for England.
“That’s the thing every young player would want to do and that’s what I want to do, the way he [Rooney] played,” Barkley says. “He scored four [at Euro 2004] didn’t he? Knocked out against Portugal. I remember. That’s all that everyone talked about all the time: Wayne Rooney, no fear, he just went out and played football.
“I’m focusing on doing well for Everton and the World Cup can be a bonus if I’m picked. I’d just see it as another tournament. Like, I’ve played in a World Cup [the under-20 edition] before. Obviously it’ll be bigger and worldwide, but it’s the same, really.”
Barkley — like Rooney back in the day — takes the “no fear” thing about young players to extremes. This was always going to be a big season for him, the time to impress Roberto Martinez, the manager, and establish himself in the team. Given his opportunity in Everton’s opening match against Norwich, he belted home a spectacular shot with a shrug. A few minutes into Barkley’s full international debut, in September, he was getting on the ball, brushing off markers and playing through passes without worries.
“I never feel fear. I don’t feel like there’s anyone watching. I feel like I’m just playing football,” he said. “Through the years it’s always felt exactly the same as when I played Sunday league. It doesn’t affect me, fans shouting or anything. I just enjoy playing football and want the ball all the time.”
That he’s now playing big games and not with pals in Mystery Park, a sports ground in Wavertree where a coach from a successful boys’ team, Ash Celtic, first saw him, “doesn’t sink in until I hear people talking about it or walk around town and people know me”.
Barkley has found the perfect mentor in Roberto Martinez. “He’s said, ‘You know what you’re capable of, just believe it’, and he has no worries about me.
“I’m the type of player that tries things. If you try things not everything’s going to come off. But [Martinez] doesn’t mind if I make mistakes. Every footballer makes mistakes. He’s said when I go out on the pitch to do what I’ve done on the training pitch. Don’t be afraid to shoot, don’t be afraid to beat players, enjoy it, enjoy playing.”
David Moyes was harder with him but Barkley might one day look back and conclude that was important, helping the player’s tactical appreciation. Martinez has him playing in his favourite attacking central midfield role, urged to do his favourite thing: “Driving with the ball. Getting the ball from deep and touching it past players and bursting past them. I like doing stuff like that and scoring goals.”
The next step for him is more of the latter — he must improve on two strikes in 20 Everton starts if he is truly to have the “touch of Michael Ballack”, as Martinez perceives. Barkley’s ability with both feet partly inspired the comparison. “I’m right-footed but like shooting with my left and when I was younger I used to not play with my right foot. It wasn’t so much to improve my left foot, but to play with it, see what it was like.
“In a school game once I played the whole game with my left foot, to see if I could. We won and I scored a few as well.” When he was 12, Everton’s academy coaches couldn’t tell his favoured foot so asked him to take some penalties — usually a surefire test. “I took two with my right and two with my left,” Barkley laughs.
He’s recently turned 20 and is still exploring his talent. At Ash Celtic he played centre-back but was also the top scorer in their league. “I used to take the corners, free kicks, everything. I’d be up where the goal was; then, when we were defending, in defence.” Now standing 6ft 2in and with a boxer’s combination of lightness and muscle, he’s “always been one of the bigger lads. I think it’s just in my genetics: I’m a powerful big lad. I played under-18s when I was 14.”
We’re in a warehouse near the docks where Barkley and Phil Jagielka help volunteers to sort presents donated to disadvantaged children on Merseyside via an appeal that Everton back, called Mission Christmas.
The visit makes Barkley think of the sacrifices that his mum, Diane, made for him and his sister. Other academy players were given lifts in 4x4s and, in one case, a Bentley, whereas Barkley would have to jog there or travel an hour each way by bus. “I didn’t have it easy the way some did. My mum didn’t have a car. Today does make me thankful for my mum because there’s kids who aren’t lucky enough and probably kids out there who have talent but can’t afford to play. Playing football is what put a smile on my face and my mum used to come and watch — so it’s good to be doing well and putting a smile on her face.”
Recently he left Wavertree for an apartment by a park. Barkley miscellanea: he overcame asthma, speaks a little Spanish and “I’ve been watching series: Dexter,Breaking Bad, Californication, Prison Break. I’ve watched loads.”
Everton’s prospects? “I think that we’ve got to be looking at the top four because we have a great squad. We should be going for those Champions League places. That’s where I want to be playing.
“We have older heads and youthful players who aren’t afraid to try things. That’s the mix you want. Martinez’s style is paying off. We go into every game believing that we can win and everyone plays [possession football], even the goalkeeper. The team’s got no fear.”
