John Barnes was just 20 when he controlled Mark Hateley’s pass with his chest at the Maracana, and set off running.
Three years earlier, he’d been turning out for Sudbury Court in the Middlesex League, completely unknown to clubs among the professional ranks. Now, he was at one of the most famous stadiums in the world, scoring one of the greatest goals in the history of the England national team.
What began with a dart between two Brazilian defenders, continued with a swivel of the hips to glide past a third, some nifty footwork to beat a fourth, then some more to round the goalkeeper and slide the ball into the empty net. This was the summer of 1984, two years before Diego Maradona’s astonishing individual goal at the World Cup. Barnes had shown the best player in the world how to do it.
His memory of the stunner that came to define him is hazy. It felt – still feels – like an out-of-body experience. “I didn’t know what I’d actually done!” smiles Barnes as he talks to FourFourTwo now, nearly four decades hence. “When you score by dribbling, there’s no player who collects the ball and says, ‘I’m going to dribble around all these players and score’. You look to pass – after I beat the first player, I spotted Tony Woodcock but couldn’t get the ball to him, so I kept on going and it just seemed like the parting of the Red Sea. I found myself in front of goal, but don’t really remember doing any of it.
“You’re subconsciously thinking about doing the opposite of what the defender does, to get away from him. You’ve reacted. I knew it was a good goal because I had the ball on the halfway line and moments later I scored, but watching it back on television, it looked much better than it felt!”
Maybe all genius happens partly by chance. Perhaps Leonardo da Vinci thought he was simply painting a standard portrait of Italian noblewoman Lisa del Giocondo, until King. Speak to Barnes for long, and you realise his modesty comes naturally – it’s not in his personality to describe his Maracana goal as the moment of brilliance it undoubtedly was. On only his 10th appearance for his country, it confirmed him as one of England’s most exciting talents in years.
