John Barnes Becomes An Official Liverpool Ambassador

John Barnes, a Liverpool legend who was already a wonderful unofficial ambassador for the club in the decades since retirement, is back at the club in a more official capacity.

Barnes joins fellow legendary striker Ian Rush as an official club ambassador. He also joins Michael Owen, but you know, they can’t all be winners. (Seriously though, Liverpool, can you please fuck off that obnoxious twat? It would be, in a word, tremendous).

“It’s a fantastic honor for me to be made an ambassador for this great club and all it stands for,” Barnes said in an official press release.

“I loved representing LFC as a player and I’m relishing the prospect of wearing the beloved Liver bird crest on my chest once again – albeit on a suit this time around.”

In the pre-Sadio Mané era of Liverpool, Barnesy was pretty much universally acknowledged as being a shoe-in for any All-Time XI list. Post-Sadio, it’s a much more contentious conversation.

Regardless, Barnes’ 108 goals for Liverpool puts him firmly in the Top 20 Liverpool goalscorers of all time (17th, albeit just one ahead of Roberto Firmino). Moreover, he won two leagues, two FA Cups, and a League Cup, as well as two FWA Footballer of the Year and one PFA Players’ Player of the Year awards.

Off the pitch, Barnes has been an outspoken and generally sound commentator on various football and football adjacent topics, particularly concerning depressingly persistent issues of racial discrimination around the game.

Hopefully Barnes can be up there on the podium alongside Rushie before too long, handing out silverware to Liverpool: The Next Generation.