CommBank Pararoos captain David Barber chats to KEEPUP’s Sacha Pisani about how football changed his life, breaking down barriers, his captaincy record and inspiring the next generation ahead of April’s IFCPF World Cup.
The beauty of football is it brings joy to so many people. No matter your race, religion, gender, sexual orientation or ability, it’s doors are open to all.
Some play for the fun of it, others aim for the stars, trying to forge a professional career among the elite. For some, the sport represents so much more.
For the Pararoos – the national football team for athletes with cerebral palsy, acquired brain injury or symptoms acquired from stroke – and long-serving captain David Barber, it is helping to shape their lives.
Barber was diagnosed with cerebral palsy by the age of four. That didn’t stop him from dreaming big, however, with the 42-year-old forever indebted to the beautiful game.
Speaking to KEEPUP ahead of next month’s IFCPF World Cup in Spain (the tournament was postponed last year due to COVID-19) Barber said: “Football helped me build myself from the ground up.
“As a young kid, I was a kid who struggled to walk up a flight of stairs without tripping on his own feet once or twice. Football being the sport that it is, the feet are the furthest part away from your brain, so to co-ordinate them you have to co-ordinate everything else in between as well.
“The thing I loved most about football was that I wasn’t good at it at all, I was genuinely terrible but I loved that challenge. It’s a team sport, you achieve as a team, you work hard as a team and you have people to help you through difficult moments and support you when you do well as well.
“Physical strength – it was a massive part of physiotherapy for me. Instead of having to go to so much physiotherapy to help build my limbs, strength and co-ordination, football done so much of that subconsciously. The more I played, the stronger I got and better I got. To the point it felt naturally and right. From that, I fell in love with football. It changed me from a very young age.
“I had the opportunity to achieve so many personal dreams. It’s a huge part of my identity now. I can never really say thank you enough to the game for what it’s done for me and how much it’s helped me grow in every aspect of my life. Hopefully I can do a little bit back for it in return. I don’t think I could ever square the ledger but I can certainly try.”
Anything is possible
There were dark days for Barber. Embarrassed to be different to everybody else, he learned to hide his disability during his childhood years.
Considered just a clumsy kid before his diagnosis, Barber was introduced to football by his neighbour.
In his own words, Barber was “genuinely terrible”. Continuing to keep his disability a secret, he was unsuccessful in every junior representative team he trialled for. There were no disabled options for football back then.
Barber got knocked down, but he never gave up. Selected at the age of 15 but an unused sub throughout an entire tournament, he finally cracked his first rep team four years later.
The rest, as they say, is history.
Barber has gone on to amass 101 international caps to go with 70 goals as he prepares for yet another World Cup.
“I have this ridiculous imagination,” Barber said of his stubbornness and desire never to quit. “Ever since I was a kid, I’d play in the backyard and I’d bounce the ball off the garden beds to get a one-two then shoot into the bottom corner of the back fence, imagining the chance to play on the international stage.
“I could imagine it so clearly I figured if you just keep working, maybe it will happen. Never stop dreaming. The one thing I sort of recognise with players that come through is the ones with the craziest imagination, they’re usually the most likely to do something unbelievable at the most difficult moment.
“We’ve had a lot of difficult moments in the history of our team and it never seems to surprise me when something special happens on the backend of it. Some of these guys have the same sort of background as me, they’ve been knocked down a thousand times but they just keep coming because they can see it in their head as to how they want it to be and believe it can be. Driving through that, don’t be afraid to reach beyond what seems to be reachable because you never really know until you have a crack. Courage is difficult.
“There were so many days, especially when I was younger, where I’d go home after a session and cry because I felt like I had more to offer and it just wasn’t there. I wasn’t ready as a player at certain points, I certainly wasn’t at the level I could’ve been, just on the development curve. Some develop quicker than others and I was definitely a late bloomer.
“My parents never sort of let me stop, even when I got knocked down. If I wanted to go again, they’d let me, they wouldn’t come in and say ‘hey, maybe you should give it up, it’s probably not for you’. They just let me push myself and see how far I could go. They never said no. They always let me get in and find out myself. I carry that with me now.
“Especially now when I watch my kids go through their time in sport and they’re starting to get towards those achievements as well, and finding themselves and whether they can go onto bigger levels. I’m really proud when I see them persevere through those moments.”
Breaking down barriers
Anything is possible. That is the motto of the Pararoos.
Almost one million people live with disability in Australia but through the Pararoos, Barber and his team-mates are breaking down barriers.
The lifeblood of disability football, the Pararoos are providing a platform and inclusive environment for all to enjoy the game.
They aren’t just a team but a symbol of hope and inspiration.
Their 2018 documentary showed the Pararoos battling to achieve greatness against the odds.
This month, Football Australia also launched the ParaMatildas – the country’s first national team for women and girls with cerebral palsy, acquired brain injury and symptoms of strike.
With the formation of the ParaMatildas, it means all Australia national teams are represented on the international stage.
“If I compare the Pararoos now to what the program was 20 years ago… when I first started, I had trouble telling people I had a disability. It was something you kept to yourself and didn’t display publicly,” Barber said.
“The Pararoos helps people understand they can put themselves out there and not be afraid of it. It gives kids such a great platform to explore their ability. The environment we have in the side and all the developmental areas underneath as well really highlights that. Inclusive is one of our biggest values. Allowing everyone the opportunity to perform at their best. Not everyone makes it to the elite level but everyone has the opportunity to play football at some level.
“Showing kids, especially kids with disability, that they can get out there and be part of a football program whether it’s mainstream or a disable-specific program, having something for them is probably the greatest thing. When I was a kid growing up, if we’d had something like the Pararoos, I can’t imagine how much more confident I could’ve been through school. The support systems you build, the networks you create, the friendships and having a broader community to relate to, it makes such a huge difference.
“If anything, that’s probably the most proud thing about the entire Pararoos setup is just the fact it’s building such a bigger community. Now the team name, the fact it’s becoming more and more recognisable and acceptable as just as equivalent as the mainstream football, that’s incredible.
“We had our home game in 2019 and we packed out Crommer Park and it was amazing. People that had never seen the sport before loved it just because it was good football, not because it was disabled football or anything else, it was just good football played at a high intensity with genuine passion. Even the Canadian guys we played against, they still talk about how much fun that was and probably the highlight of most of their careers.
“The fact the Pararoos are able to create something like that is extraordinary. It’s not an accident, it comes on the back of years and years of hard work from a lot of people. The incredible support the team gets from the FA in particular, we have a lot of people dedicated to driving the same message and creating great outcomes for not just the players now but the players in the future.
“And the women’s team now. The fact we have a women’s team going on the park this year to an international tournament is probably the best thing of all. It means everyone’s in the game. That’s the most important.”
Barber’s Guinness World Record bid
Barber has achieved a lot in his career.
He is only one of two Pararoos – after Chris Pyne – to reach a century of appearances in the green and gold.
Even more impressive, Barber has captained Australia for longer than any player has skippered a national team in any sport ever – 96 games with the armband.
It means a lot to the Queenslander, but not as much as inspiring the next generation of Pararoos and ParaMatildas.
“I’m more proud of it these days, now that I have the opportunity to reflect a little bit more being older,” Barber said of captaining Australia for so long. “When I was younger, I just played as much as I could because I loved playing. That passion never changes, absolutely.
“With a little more wisdom, I get to reflect on it and start to understand how much fortune I’ve had in being able to not just be fit and available to play year after year, but all the support in the background. You need support from your employer, family, friends. Myself, I have three kids and my wife goes through hell on earth every time I go away on these things. It’s so much more than just one person’s achievement to get to something like that. I don’t think I could ever truly understand it until it’s finished and how lucky I’ve been.
“It’s been a hell of a ride. It’s only when I started to think … no one has probably done it more in Australia then I looked at all the different sports and I’m like, no one has actually done it that long in any sport. I wanted to send away an application to Guinness World Records to see if they’d acknowledge it as well.
“It takes the support of your team-mates as well. They’ve got to buy into you as a leader every year and every cycle. You go through generations of players and generational change. Coaching staff as well. They’ve got to support you as a leader and believe in you.
“… It’s building the leaders for tomorrow’s team as well. That’s really what we’re focusing on at the moment, identifying future leaders of the Pararoos and giving them the tools they need to have as much fun as I’ve had. That’s a big part of what we’re trying to do at the moment, is creating that legacy that will last for many years to come hopefully.”
