He was arguably the best black player of his generation, a Liverpool legend who appeared in two World Cups. But now the football career of John Barnes is in ruins: filing for bankruptcy last week, just five days after being sacked as manager of Tranmere Rovers.
Barnes' dismissal from the League One club after eight defeats in the first 11 matches of the season means the English game has lost its highest-profile black coach.
The official statistics are hardly an advertisement for diversity. Less than one per cent of football management posts in England are held by non-white candidates, even though almost one-quarter of all players are black.
'British owners and chairmen have got to be more forthright,' former Manchester United defender Viv Anderson, the first black player to be capped in a full international by England, says. 'If someone has the qualifications, it doesn't matter if he's black, blue, purple or green: give them the opportunity.'
Barnes had to wait almost a decade to be given another chance at management after a disastrous spell in charge of Scottish giants Celtic. In the 1999-2000 season when he worked under Kenny Dalglish as director of football, Barnes was fired soon after Celtic suffered a shock Scottish Cup defeat against Inverness Caledonian Thistle.
In June 2008, Barnes' former England teammate, Paul Ince, signed on at Blackburn Rovers, becoming the first black British manager in the Premier League. But after just three victories in 17 games, Ince was sacked last December after only 177 days in charge. Since July, Ince has coached Milton Keynes Dons, of League One.