Gareth Barry

Gareth Barry (born 23 February 1981) is an English former professional footballer who played as a midfielder.

He made 653 Premier League appearances for Aston Villa, Manchester City, Everton and West Bromwich Albion, the highest number of Premier League appearances in history.

He also represented England at international level.

Barry moved to Aston Villa from Brighton & Hove Albion as a youngster, and spent 12 years at the club.

He captained Aston Villa and is eighth in their all-time list of appearances, with 441 across all competitions, including 365 in the Premier League.

Barry joined Aston Villa from Brighton and Hove Albion as a trainee in 1997, along with Michael Standing.

The move was controversial, for the Brighton board had demanded £2.5 million for the two players; the Football Association's transfer tribunal panel came up with a deal which would have seen Brighton make £2.4 million in the event of Barry and Standing making international appearances for England, as well as sell-on clauses.

Following a season in the reserves and academy sides he played his first senior match for Villa on 2 May 1998, a 3–1 win at Sheffield Wednesday, as a 49th-minute substitute for Ian Taylor.

On 24 April 1999, on at half time for the injured Dion Dublin, he finished Steve Stone's cross 12 minutes later for his first professional goal, concluding a 2–0 win over Nottingham Forest at Villa Park.

Barry is a former England international, having won his first full cap in 2000 and captained the side in 2010 in a friendly against Egypt.

He earned 53 caps in total, scoring 3 goals, and was included in England's squads at UEFA Euro 2000 and the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

He started in the 2000 FA Cup Final at the old Wembley Stadium, which Villa lost 1–0 to Chelsea.

The goal against Hafnarfjordur was Barry's first European goal since he scored a penalty in the Intertoto Cup against Celta Vigo in 2000.

In August 2001, he featured as Villa defeated FC Basel 5–2 on aggregate in the final of the 2001 UEFA Intertoto Cup.

In November 2007, it was reported that Aston Villa were set to award Barry a testimonial, at the age of just 26, to recognise his 10 years at the club.

During the league game against Bolton Wanderers on 28 October 2007, Barry became the youngest player to appear in 300 Premier League games (aged 26 years 247 days), surpassing former record-holder Frank Lampard.

On 5 April 2008, Barry helped to break a run of bad form, scoring in a 4–0 victory over Bolton Wanderers.

He scored two goals (his first two from open play that season) and he was also credited with two assists.

As of April 2008, Barry, approaching 400 total appearances for Aston Villa, was the longest serving player in the team.

In May 2008, Liverpool made a series of bids to buy Barry, all of which were rejected by Aston Villa.

Barry publicly criticised his manager, Martin O'Neill, accusing him of making no attempt to keep him at the club, and further stating a desire to join Liverpool in order to compete in the Champions League.

O'Neill denied this claim and Barry was officially disciplined for giving an unauthorised interview.

A further bid from Liverpool of around £15 million was rejected as it was still short of Villa's £18 million asking price.

Steve Finnan had then been offered in part-exchange in the deal, but the fee Villa wanted in this case was understood by BBC Sport to be £17 million with Finnan included.

Barry was then stripped of the team captaincy, fined two weeks' wages and banned from training with the Villa squad.

He remained an Aston Villa player, starting in a UEFA Cup tie against Fimleikafélag Hafnarfjarðar, in which he scored in a 4–1 win.

On 18 September 2008, he made his 400th appearance in a Villa shirt in the UEFA Cup away to Litex Lovech, scoring a penalty as Villa won the match 3–1.

Barry scored again for Villa as they beat Ajax 2–1 in their first UEFA Cup group match on 23 October 2008.

Owing to the transfer saga, O'Neill had taken the captaincy away from him and handed it to centre-back Martin Laursen for the 2008–09 season.

He joined Manchester City for a fee of £12 million in June 2009, where he won the FA Cup in 2011 and the Premier League title the following season.

Following Laursen's injury, the captaincy was restored to Barry in January 2009.

In total, he made 441 appearances for Aston Villa, scoring 52 goals in the process.

On 2 June 2009, Barry signed a five-year contract with Manchester City for a fee of £12 million and wore the number 18 shirt.

Many Aston Villa fans publicly criticised Barry for this move considering his alleged desire to play in the UEFA Champions League.

However, Barry responded to this positively and wrote a letter to the Birmingham Mail in which he thanked the Villa fans for their support while he was there, claiming that his move to City was for a "new challenge".

He made his debut for City in the opening league game of the season against Blackburn Rovers at Ewood Park, playing the full 90 minutes in a 2–0 victory.

Barry scored his first Premier League goal for City against Manchester United at Old Trafford on 20 September 2009 levelling the scores at 1–1, but City went on to lose the match 4–3.

Three days later, he scored a header in a League Cup tie with Fulham to make the scores 1–1 and City went on to win in extra time.

After a season on loan, he joined Everton on a three-year contract in July 2014, and on its expiration he signed for West Bromwich Albion.

Barry announced his retirement from football on 27 August 2020.