John Barnes European Football

Inaccuracies

The game proved to be overtaken by events in terms of the teams it featured. Originally Yugoslavia won their qualifying group to get to the tournament, but political events led to them being excluded. Group runners-up Denmark took their place, and miraculously won the tournament. Unfortunately, Yugoslavia, and not Denmark, feature in the game.

John Barnes

A common question with this game does appear to be - "who is John Barnes?". Well:

Born in Jamaica, he started playing for Watford in England in the early 80s. Over the next few years the team had huge success, largely thanks to the skill of Barnes and Luther Blissett, the management of Graham Taylor (himself the subject of a licensed Krisalis title) and money from one Elton John. In fact, when Blissett joined Italian giants AC Milan in 1983 and struggled, many people alleged they had intended to sign Barnes (both players were black).

Barnes scored a famously brilliant goal for England against Brazil in 1984 (although he often under-performed for England, perhaps he wasn't 100% committed). He joined Liverpool in 1987 and enjoyed huge success until leaving in 1996, by which time he was 33. As nof 2004 he does presenting work for Channel 5 in the UK.