This offseason Giles Barnes took some time to do something he hadn’t done in 2015 — nothing.
Between the Houston Dynamo and the Jamaica national team, it was a busy year for the 27-year-old midfielder.
At this time last year, Barnes hadn’t played any international matches. He’s now played in 14. It was a full season for a player who had been dogged with criticisms of his durability.
“I did a little bit of everything,” Barnes told GoalUSA of his time off. “I don’t live in America, so it was good to get back across and see my family.”
Included in that group is his younger brother Marcus, a Southampton player who suffered a knee injury similar to the one his older brother had to fight to overcome.
The rest was welcomed for Barnes, who turned down the opportunity to play even more matches during the winter.
“A lot of teams probably would’ve made their players train in the offseason,” he said, “but we kind of made a plan together that essentially made me stay fresh, to recover and get my legs back which involved me not going on loan as well. ... There were opportunities for me to go and play in Europe again.
“I think it’s the right decision that we’ve all made and the best thing for the Houston Dynamo as well as myself.”
The Dynamo are confident that a well-rested Barnes will be important as the team pushes to get back into the postseason. While the London-born Barnes continued to excel with the Dynamo and Jamaica, he faded toward the end of the year as the matches played and miles traveled started to wear on him.
“It’s very simple with Giles. Giles just needs to be fresh. When he’s fresh, Giles Barnes for me, is one of the top players in the league, and I think he can be again,” Dynamo coach Owen Coyle told GoalUSA.
“You’ve got to understand, it was his first year of being a bona fide international with different travel and different commitments, so there’s a lot on his young shoulders,” Coyle continued.
“I mean, that’s very nice of him to say first and foremost,” Barnes said after Coyle’s comments were relayed to him. “Yeah, I do actually feel fresher now. I think toward the back end of the last season, I actually, I struggled. I was playing with tendonitis in my left knee and my Achilles and obviously due to all the travel and obviously playing in the two tournaments during the season as well as trying to recover from bumps and bruises, it kind of caught up with me toward the end.”
This season will involve fewer matches for Jamaica, with the Reggae Boyz in just one international tournament this year rather than the two they contested last year. That, plus the wisdom that comes with a year as an international player should let Barnes give even more to the Dynamo, who narrowly missed the postseason in 2015.
Barnes enjoyed the time off, but he’s already back to what he does best: playing soccer, and lots of it.
