Simon Barker
Footballer (born 1964)
Simon Barker (born 4 November 1964) is an English former professional footballer who played as a midfielder.
He began his career at Blackburn Rovers in 1983, winning the Full Members' Cup with the club in 1987, before moving on to Queens Park Rangers the following year for £400,000. He played 351 league and cup games for QPR and played in the Premier League before moving on to Port Vale in 1998. He scored 84 goals in 619 league and cup appearances throughout a 16-year career in the English Football League. He also represented England under-21s four times. He retired in November 1999 and went on to work for the Professional Footballers' Association as assistant chief executive.
Career
Blackburn Rovers
Barker began his career at Blackburn Rovers under Bobby Saxton's stewardship in 1983, having been Noel Brotherston's boot boy as an apprentice. He had chosen to join Rovers ahead of Manchester United as he felt he had a better chance of breaking into the first-team at Ewood Park. Rovers finished sixth in the Second Division in 1983–84, three places and 13 points outside of the promotion zone. They moved up to fifth in 1984–85, just two places and one point behind promoted Manchester City.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Simon Barker” as footballer (born 1964). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as footballer (born 1964). Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 28, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3484205. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1964, 1983, 1987 and 1998.
A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.
- Establishing names and roles
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Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Simon Barker”, its source revision and the description used here.
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- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “Simon Barker” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.