John Barnes

“I moved into midfield because I ruptured my Achilles tendon and couldn't run anymore - it's not what I wanted to do, it's what I had to do!”

“I used to go to the school plays my kids were in, and who were the angels at Christmas time? The blonde, blue-eyed girls. Who was Mary? And the shepherds were all the black and Indian kids i...”

“For a team like Brighton, just being in the Premier League is important. That is the name of the game.”

“Race, for me, should be social and cultural, rather than the colour of your skin. Anton Ferdinand would have more in common with John Terry than he does with some West African from Nigeria....”

“People have been taught not just to have a negative perception of black people, but to have a belief in the superiority of white people. Their behaviour is the result of centuries of indoctr...”

“My dad came from Trinidad to Jamaica when he was 19. He had to go to Jamaica to join the British regiment, where it was based. After Sandhurst, he returned to the Caribbean as a junior lieut...”

“I felt I had to take the Celtic opportunity. You quickly learn that any managerial vacancy attracts up to 60 or 70 applicants, so you need a good reason to turn a job down. A start is a star...”

“I grew up in a middle-class family in Jamaica, I had no self-worth issues whatsoever.”

“For most footballers, they just have to give their all for 90 minutes two times a week, and apart from a few training sessions spend the rest of the time resting. They only train intensively...”

“Because I have experienced a prosperous, healthy and happy existence, I must have been a decent person in a past life.”

“My mother made me believe in reincarnation, in karma. If I live a good life, I believe I will be reincarnated as a higher being. If I live a bad life, I believe I will be reincarnated as a l...”

“My dad was a proper old English gentleman, even though he was from the Caribbean. He used to stand up and salute during the Queen's Christmas speech.”

“History shows that black people have been second-class citizens, less than human. That's what had to happen with slavery. You had to dehumanise a person, to say, 'He is not like us. He is us...”

“The racism I am really interested in stamping out is in everyday life. Joe Bloggs, who nobody knows, walks down the street and gets racially abused. He goes into a shop and people think he i...”