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Liverpool FC legend John Barnes: Meeting Nelson Mandela was an honour 25 Dec 2013 17:44
The star met the statesman on an LFC tour to South Africa
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The LFC party with Nelson Mandela on a post-season trip to South Africa, May 1994 (pic: David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)
Liverpool FC legend John Barnes spoke of how honoured he was to have met and interviewed world statesman and former South Africa leader Nelson Mandela.
Jamaican-born John, 50, was in South Africa last week while working for African satellite broadcaster SuperSport as the country laid their great leader to rest.
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Nostalgia: Nelson Mandela, his life in pictures
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He told the ECHO: “I didn’t go to the memorial. I was there for work and it was at the same time that the memorial for him was happening. It was a sad time.
“It wasn’t just South Africa that had lost a great leader – the whole world had lost a great leader.”
The former footballer, who interviewed Mr Mandela while on tour with the Reds in Africa in 1994, said it was a “tremendous honour” to have talked to him at his private residence in South Africa.
The former England winger was tasked with making a TV documentary on the anti-apartheid activist and human rights campaigner.
John Barnes in action against Aston Villa
He said : “It was an enormous privilege because it was a one-on-one interview. To do that with him was a tremendous honour.
“I liked his passion and commitment. He was a great world leader and politician, but he had humility. He had compassion and forgiveness. I liked how much of a great human being that he was more than anything else.
“What really stood out for me was how he was such a humble person – for not saying how great a person he was for what he actually achieved.
“I met him in 1994 when I did a documentary on him for Granada. I spoke to him on the pitch and he wrote his address down on a piece of paper and said come to the house.
“I drove there with Rob McCaffrey (TV presenter) and the camera man. Mr Mandela’s granddaughter made us a cup of coffee and we stayed for two hours.
“He said that there were greater people than himself who didn’t live to see this day – obviously he meant the fall of apartheid.
“He wasn’t saying that he was a great leader and he was the greatest leader that has ever been, he was talking about how people who were greater than himself never lived to see this day.
“He also said that it was important for white South Africans to stay in South Africa to help build the country because people thought that after taking over something along the lines of what happened in Zimbabwe would happen.
“But he made great pains in saying that we need the white people who ran the country and who understood how to run the country and how to run business because the black people were inexperienced at it.
“So it wasn’t a question of the black people taking over, they needed the white people there to show how it is done.
“So there was no call for recriminations and revenge. It was all about everyone coming together for the benefit of South Africa. He also spoke about his hopes for the country.”
Barnes was the first high-profile black player to parade his skills at Anfield back in the 1980s, a period when racial abuse could be heard at stadiums across Britain.
Barnes, who won both of English football’s 1987-88 player of the year accolades while at Liverpool, said: “Mr Mandela said that he loved Liverpool and that he supported Liverpool. I gave him a signed shirt and it’s in the Mandela museum. He admired Liverpool and he liked me.”
The star met the statesman on an LFC tour to South Africa
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The LFC party with Nelson Mandela on a post-season trip to South Africa, May 1994 (pic: David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)Liverpool FC legend John Barnes spoke of how honoured he was to have met and interviewed world statesman and former South Africa leader Nelson Mandela.
Jamaican-born John, 50, was in South Africa last week while working for African satellite broadcaster SuperSport as the country laid their great leader to rest.
View gallery
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Nostalgia: Nelson Mandela, his life in pictures
View gallery
He told the ECHO: “I didn’t go to the memorial. I was there for work and it was at the same time that the memorial for him was happening. It was a sad time.
“It wasn’t just South Africa that had lost a great leader – the whole world had lost a great leader.”
The former footballer, who interviewed Mr Mandela while on tour with the Reds in Africa in 1994, said it was a “tremendous honour” to have talked to him at his private residence in South Africa.
The former England winger was tasked with making a TV documentary on the anti-apartheid activist and human rights campaigner.
John Barnes in action against Aston Villa He said : “It was an enormous privilege because it was a one-on-one interview. To do that with him was a tremendous honour.
“I liked his passion and commitment. He was a great world leader and politician, but he had humility. He had compassion and forgiveness. I liked how much of a great human being that he was more than anything else.
“What really stood out for me was how he was such a humble person – for not saying how great a person he was for what he actually achieved.
“I met him in 1994 when I did a documentary on him for Granada. I spoke to him on the pitch and he wrote his address down on a piece of paper and said come to the house.
“I drove there with Rob McCaffrey (TV presenter) and the camera man. Mr Mandela’s granddaughter made us a cup of coffee and we stayed for two hours.
“He said that there were greater people than himself who didn’t live to see this day – obviously he meant the fall of apartheid.
“He wasn’t saying that he was a great leader and he was the greatest leader that has ever been, he was talking about how people who were greater than himself never lived to see this day.
“He also said that it was important for white South Africans to stay in South Africa to help build the country because people thought that after taking over something along the lines of what happened in Zimbabwe would happen.
“But he made great pains in saying that we need the white people who ran the country and who understood how to run the country and how to run business because the black people were inexperienced at it.
“So it wasn’t a question of the black people taking over, they needed the white people there to show how it is done.
“So there was no call for recriminations and revenge. It was all about everyone coming together for the benefit of South Africa. He also spoke about his hopes for the country.”
Barnes was the first high-profile black player to parade his skills at Anfield back in the 1980s, a period when racial abuse could be heard at stadiums across Britain.
Barnes, who won both of English football’s 1987-88 player of the year accolades while at Liverpool, said: “Mr Mandela said that he loved Liverpool and that he supported Liverpool. I gave him a signed shirt and it’s in the Mandela museum. He admired Liverpool and he liked me.”
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