Legendary former Liverpool and England winger John Barnes has expressed an interest in the technical director?s post at the Bermuda Football Association, can reveal.

The Jamaican-born Barnes, also a former manager of top Scottish side Celtic, is a friend of Bermuda?s Shaun Goater and was until last week, reportedly pursuing a job with the Jamaican national team.

But upon hearing that Barnes? desire to work with the Jamaica Football Association had not led to a definitive offer, Goater contacted the man he idolised as a youngster to ask whether he might be interested in coming to Bermuda.

?I?d heard he was keen on going to work in Jamaica, but when that fell through it suddenly dawned on me that Barnes might be the sort of candidate the BFA are looking for to take on the technical director?s job,? Goater explained yesterday.

?So I called him on Monday to discuss the situation and he seemed very interested in the job and I have since put (BFA president) Larry Mussenden and him in contact via email.

?I know it?s very early days but in my view it is a very exciting prospect to have somebody of John Barnes? calibre and international experience expressing an interest.

?In my opinion he has all the qualities the BFA could want in a technical director and I?m almost certain that somebody like him would do extremely well here and be very popular with the players and the public.

?When I was growing up in Bermuda playing football, Andrew Bascome was my mentor, but when I first went across to play in England I was looking around for a player I wanted to emulate and John Barnes was that man.

?He had a fantastic career and is respected by all in football. I?ve done what I can to put him and the BFA in touch and hopefully something develops from it.?

When contacted yesterday, Mussenden confirmed Goater had passed on Barnes? contact details and the matter would be pursued.

He stressed, however, that they are still in the very early stages of putting together their $36 million strategic plan and it would be a while before the specific role of the technical director was be formally drawn up and applications for the post invited.

?There?s still a lot of work to be done before we start hiring anybody,? Mussenden said.

?But what I can say is that there has been some communication from Shaun Goater informing us that he has spoken with Mr. Barnes regarding a potential application for the job of technical director.

?I have emailed them both back explaining ex-actly where we are right now and have asked John Barnes to forward us his CV. While it is not appropriate right now to comment in great detail on personnel issues, I can confirm that a number of people have expressed an interest in the job since the funding has become available and we are happy and encouraged to receive news that somebody like John Barnes could be interested.?

The 43-year-old Barnes began his career at Watford in 1981 and quickly became well known for his dazzling pace and dribbling ability on the left wing.

He made his England debut in 1983 under then-manager Bobby Robson and scored what is regarded as one of the best individual goals in the history of football when he beat at least four Brazilian defenders and rounded their goalkeeper before slotting the ball into an empty net during an international friendly in Rio de Janeiro.

After six successful years of club football for the Hornets, Barnes signed for Kenny Dalglish?s Liverpool for 900,000 pounds in 1987, joining the likes of Peter Beardsley, John Alrdige and Ian Rush to form one of the most devastating attacks in English football history.

However, in his early years at Liverpool, Barnes and team-mate Mark Chamberlain were subjected to some of the most vile and persistent racist treatment imaginable ? with Barnes regularly having bananas hurled at him when he ran over to take a corner at some away grounds. He was even the subject of death threats from known racist groups, including the infamous English National Front.

He went on to rack up 732 career appearances for four English clubs, scoring 198 goals in total ? though most pundits felt he never quite made the most of his ability at international level, despite being the most capped black England footballer with 79.