Darrius Barnes (born December 24, 1986) is a retired American

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

player. He played the majority of his professional career for the

New England Revolution The New England Revolution is an American professional soccer club based in the Greater Boston area that competes in Major League Soccer (MLS), in the Eastern Conference of the league. It is one of the ten charter clubs of MLS, having compet ...

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a men's professional soccer league sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation, which represents the sport's highest level in the United States. The league comprises 29 teams—26 in the U.S. and 3 in Canada ...

, the top flight of professional soccer in the United States. He primarily played defender.

Career

Youth and College

Barnes played high school soccer at

Southeast Raleigh High School Southeast Raleigh Magnet High School is a magnet high school in Raleigh, North Carolina, United States. It opened in 1997 as a magnet school with a focus on math, science, and technology. The current magnet theme is University Connections, which ...

, in

Raleigh, North Carolina Raleigh (; ) is the capital city of the state of North Carolina and the List of North Carolina county seats, seat of Wake County, North Carolina, Wake County in the United States. It is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, second-most ...

. He started for Varsity all four years. His senior year he helped his team to reach the conference finals and defeat a tough Broughton High School team to claim the school's first ever conference championship. His merits include TAAC All-Conference 2005. Barnes played

college soccer College soccer is played by teams composed of soccer players who are enrolled in colleges and universities. It is very prominent in United States, Japan, South Korea, Canada, and as well as in South Africa and the Philippines. The United Kingd ...

Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...

. During his college years Barnes also played with

Raleigh CASL Elite North Carolina FC U23 is an American soccer team based in Cary, North Carolina. It was founded in 2002 as the Raleigh Elite, and the current affiliate of North Carolina FC, a third division club in the United Soccer League. The team plays in ...

and Cary RailHawks U23's in the

USL Premier Development League USL League Two (USL2), formerly the Premier Development League (PDL), is a semi-professional developmental soccer league sponsored by United Soccer Leagues in the United States and Canada, forming part of the United States soccer league syste ...

Professional

Barnes was drafted in the third round (40th overall) of the

2009 MLS SuperDraft The 2009 MLS SuperDraft took place on January 15, 2009 in St. Louis, Missouri. It was the tenth annual Major League Soccer SuperDraft. The first selection was owned by the expansion Seattle Sounders FC. Unlike previous years, the SuperDraft wa ...

. He made his professional debut on 21 March 2009, in New England's first game of the 2009 MLS season against the

San Jose Earthquakes The San Jose Earthquakes are an American professional soccer team based in San Jose, California. The Earthquakes compete as a member club of the Western Conference of Major League Soccer (MLS). Originally as the San Jose Clash, the franchise ...

. He became the second rookie in the history of MLS to play every minute of every game, following in the footsteps of former Revs center back Michael Parkhurst, who was the first to accomplish the feat in 2005. Following his release from New England at the end of the 2016 season, Barnes joined

North American Soccer League The North American Soccer League may refer to: *North American Soccer League (1968–1984), a former Division I league *North American Soccer League (2011–2017) The North American Soccer League (NASL) was a professional men's soccer league b ...

side New York Cosmos on March 24, 2017. On December 15, 2017, Barnes announced his retirement from playing professional soccer.

Post-playing career

After retiring from active play, Barnes joined the

offices and as of June, 2020 was working for the league in marketing.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Barnes, Darrius 1986 births Living people African-American soccer players American soccer players Association football defenders Cary Clarets players Duke Blue Devils men's soccer players Major League Soccer players New England Revolution draft picks New England Revolution players New York Cosmos (2010) players North American Soccer League players North Carolina FC U23 players Soccer players from North Carolina Soccer players from Raleigh, North Carolina USL League Two players