Giles Barnes finds happiness in Houston thanks to his father.

For most professional players it can be hard to pinpoint the very moment their love for soccer blossomed. “It’s funny, actually. I only know of that memory because I’ve seen it on video,” says Giles Barnes.

The moment he’s referring to involves his father Ronald and him in their garden. “I was playing on my slide, and he just got up out of his chair and we start kicking a football around in the garden.”

Beginning an obsession that would take Barnes from school playgrounds to Arsenal and Chelsea as a youngster, his father was there for every step. When Barnes made his debut for Derby County as a 17 year old, things looked bright. He was England’s next hot property on a route to the senior national team and the Premier League, with it a matter of when not if he would make the step up.

“For me back then it was hard,” Barnes says. “You hear that the club have accepted a bid and sometimes I didn’t know if I was coming or going. I remember one day Newcastle had put a bid in for me and the manager at the time told me to go in and get my stuff. I just want to put it on record I never asked to leave Derby County ever and I think that’s what a lot of people have mixed up about me.”

As a game soccer can sometimes be about momentum. A team’s momentum, a player’s momentum, it’s vital to keep things rolling. Injuries are a debilitating risk to any young player and Barnes knows that first-hand. To call him ‘injury-prone,’ he argues, is a superficial reading of his situation. “I felt I was unfairly tagged as injury prone,” Barnes says. “I was never one of those people that picked up calf injuries or quad injuries. Unfortunately I had two Achilles tendon injuries - one was a rupture, one was a partial rupture - and I had a knee that required micro fracture surgery. Those are things I can’t control. I felt like people in England thought I was injury prone. To me that’s just horrific luck.”

Despite the stumbles, his dad was still there. “It was two and a bit years of battling with myself,” Barnes says. “Without him and my family behind me it would have been tough. My dad has always been my backbone, my number one fan and my number one critic. He’s always helped me through everything, big or small. I remember him holding my hand before I was going into surgery with my knee telling me it’s going to be OK. I remember him being at every single consultation. I owe a lot to my dad, he was a big part of me getting through everything.”

Unfortunately for the 27 year old, few managers in the top two leagues were as optimistic as his father, unwilling to read past the brief synopsis of his career and understand his injury record. “It was hard to convince clubs to give you a four-year deal so you just think I have to go away and reassess,” Barnes explains.

By this point his career had seen him go from Derby to Fulham on loan, then a spell at West Bromwich Albion before finally ending up at Doncaster Rovers in the Championship. His time at Donny was a particularly curious one as agent Willy McKay orchestrated a number of high profile arrivals to the small South Yorkshire club.

“I ended up playing as a holding midfielder.” Barnes said. “It’s a funny one. We had Billy Sharp, El Hadji Diouf, Frederic Piquionne and a lot of attacking players. I had played central midfield before but I ended up being the anchoring player. So when I look at my time at Doncaster it was a learning experience. I had some good times there and it’s a great club but from a footballing standpoint I never touched the heights I wanted to and I feel that was because I was played out position.”

Departing the Keepmoat Stadium, he was now a free agent. Offers were there from Greece, Italy and even England but the deals were short-term, had few guarantees and didn’t capture his excitement. Then a chance call from an agent offered the prospect of Major League Soccer.

“It was just the way they made me feel,” Barnes says on why he chose Houston Dynamo. “The other two clubs were two good clubs but I didn’t get the same warmth, love and reception I got from the people at the Dynamo organisation. When you feel wanted, that’s when they get the best out of you. The other places it felt like it would have been nice to have me there but there wasn’t that same warmth.”

That figurative feeling of warmth turned literal when he first arrived in Houston. Mention of the Texas heat elicits a hearty laugh from Barnes. He jokes that he occasionally catches his dog Leo sunbathing in the garden and that walks have become a lot shorter since they arrived Stateside. “He pants like a dog that needs a lot of water,” Barnes says laughing.

Adjusting to the climate has seen the 27 year old undergo some changes of his own. It’s estimated he’s lost two stone since his move. “In my first year when I was here I was getting 75 minutes into games and I thought I was breathing a little bit heavier than I should be,” Barnes says. “I took it upon myself and thought, let me just try and train a little bit harder and eat a little bit less in the off-season. I ended up dropping quite a lot off. I’ve definitely felt a difference during games when I’m getting to the 90th minute and I’m still running around.”

That development not only saw him lead the club’s scoring charts in 2014 but also catch the eye of the Jamaican national team. Making his debut in May this year in what has been a memorable 2015 for The Reggae Boyz. Overcoming the United States during the semi-finals of the Gold Cup 2-1 they were no match for tournament favourites Mexico in the final as they lost 3-1.

Throughout the competition and Barnes’ time with Jamaica’s national team, one man has stood proudly and watched: his father Ronald. “He has a very good way with words,” Barnes says, referencing the text message his father sent him explaining how happy he was to see him play for Jamaica. “During the national anthem I just had my eyes locked on him and to see how proud he was made it even better.”

For Barnes there is also a greater benefit, to serve as a representation for those who went before him. “It means a lot to me also and my whole family,” he explains. “Not just my immediate family but my family who came to seek work in England from Jamaica. My grandparents on his [my dad’s] side are not with us but they would have been so proud. My mum’s mum is also Jamaican. When I can represent such a part of my family history it’s unbelievable.”

Of the variety of emotions that have attached themselves to Barnes’ career, the one that prevails now is happiness. It shines through in his voice, particularly when he talks about his life in Texas working under Owen Coyle: “He just has this ability to pick you up when you’re feeling down.”

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