A day in the live Jim Barber, Scotish 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.