World Cup a factor for Barry

City midfielder will enjoy the spotlight on Eastlands

Last updated: 11th August 2009   Subscribe to RSS Feed

World Cup a factor for Barry

Barry: Looking forward to new season

I'm at a club creating a lot of headlines and it's very exciting.

Gareth Barry
Quotes of the week

Related links

Teams

Players

Also see

Gareth Barry has revealed that preparing for next year's World Cup was one of the reasons behind his move to Manchester City.

The England midfielder broke into the national squad while playing for previous club Aston Villa but believes that the spotlight on Eastlands may provide a better opportunity to stake his claim for a starting role in South Africa.

Barry thinks that City are now in a position to challenge the current top four Premier League clubs after their big-spending summer.

"There will be a lot of spotlight on us and the players we have," he said.

"Hopefully we can challenge the top four that have dominated for so long. I'm at a club creating a lot of headlines and it's very exciting. We just want a competitive game now and to start the season well.

"When you spend 12 years at a club it's always a big decision to leave, but hopefully my decision can be backed up by the way we play this year.

Confidence

"The World Cup was in the back of my mind and I'm confident I can play a big part for Man City and go into the World Cup having hopefully qualified with a lot of confidence."

The 28-year-old is set to line-up for England when they face Holland in a friendly at the Amsterdam ArenA on Wednesday night.

Barry says that the contest will serve as a perfect tune-up for their all-important World Cup qualifying clash against Croatia on 9th September.

"You can understand why you want to play these games as we are playing a great team in Holland who have already qualified for the World Cup," he added.

"So it's a good test and it's a great build-up for Croatia. We have some tough memories of the home game against them which we can hopefully put right."

Click Here for Your Free Bet