Having graduated in the Summer of 1996, from Middlesex University with a degree in Economics, James immediately took on a job as a money broker. His dream while at University had been fulfilled, a jet-setting life-style working in one of the most competitive environments in the world. Europe’s financial hub, “The City of London”.
He was an immediate success entertaining prospective clients at all the major nightspots around London. But this was only during the week. His passion, as all his friends knew, was football. Spontaneously joining in a game with strangers, which he did on numerous occasions while walking through a park and spotting a kick-around being played.
He decided that he needed a bigger stage for his competitive instinct honed in the City, to be used. He applied to join the West Fulham Football league and invited his close friends and workmates to join the team. After getting hooked on a football manager computer game he decided he wanted nothing more than to be the team manager and live the dream every Sunday instead of seeing it on a computer screen.
The first season was not a great success but the long-term plan was already rolling.
1997/98 season saw the foundation of Barnesalona (he had inherited his fathers’ gift for pun making) But this time there were 3 teams in total: two of them in the West Fulham football league and one an elite team in the Wimbledon & District Saturday league. The players were made up of football enthusiasts that James had met and poached from the parks around London the previous summer. They had, I guess, caught the enthusiastic bug that James had when it came to football.
Life was good at that time: the Saturday team got promoted to the Premier Division at the first attempt; James got headhunted to a more successful money-broking firm, which brought with it a substantial raise. But after a few months, the long hours spent behind a desk was no longer what James wanted. The money was great but he might be burnt out by the time he was 35 years old, besides which his dream of expanding the Barnesalona club would need more time if it was to be a success.
After securing a loan to buy a property, and doubling his entries in the West Fulham football league to four, he decided to quit his job and start to find backers for his dream as well as start to prepare to pass his FA football coaching exams.
The 1999/2000 season saw the Saturday team compete at a new level in the SSEFL following another promotion, and saw an additional team join the West Fulham football league bringing the total amount of teams under the Barnesalona club name to 6. James also bought a bus to take his teams to their away fixtures as now the Saturday team had to compete throughout the whole of the South East of England.
The dream began to take shape. A few more successful years and the Saturday team would be competing as Semi-Pro level and be only 7 promotions away from the football league! James used the 6 other teams to screen out the best players and promote them to the Saturday squad. In doing so he needed to continue the search for football fanatics and new players. Therefore James elected that for the following season he would actually start his own league and call it the Barnesalona league.
He rented Barns Elms Playing fields from Richmond Council, created a web page, placed adverts all over Richmond and Fulham and ended up with 8 Teams.
James’ success was entirely due to his sheer determination and will power to make his Barnesalona football club a success story.
But James also had a big heart. He wanted to share his passion with others. He completed all the FA coaching exams and became a football coach during the day, coaching at Fulham FC, Wimbledon FC and lately at the Harrodian School, l’Ecole Jacques Prévert in Brook Green along with the French Lycée in South Kensington.
In July 2001, James went to America to coach in Children camps. He loved kids. But the American trips proved too easy, James had to have another challenge. In December 2001, he took a backpack, a camera, some
traffic cones and a football and headed for Kenya, Malawi and Tanzania. He didn’t know a soul but, through his enthusiasm for football, he survived several difficult encounters. He red-carded a Masai warrior player for wearing a knife! He loved the African kids and promised them he’d come back in 2002 to bring them football equipment and get them trained.The 2001/2002 and 2002/2003 seasons brought the total entries to the Barnesalona League to 10 and also saw a cup competition, The Rettie Cup. A complete success, this will carry on again next season his brother, Jean-Cedric and best friend, Dorian, having elected to carry on living the Barnesalona dream and keep this friendly league together.
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