Etienne Barbara NASL Golden Ball Winner
CARY, N.C. – Carolina RailHawks forward Etienne Barbara has been named the recipient of the NASL Golden Ball, the award for the league’s most valuable player.
Barbara was at the forefront of the RailHawks’ landmark 2011 season, which saw the RailHawks win the NASL Regular Season Championship and break more than 20 individual and team records along the way.
Eight of those records belong to Barbara. In his second season with the RailHawks, he scored 20 goals and had eight assists to win the NASL’s Golden Boot. He was also named to the NASL Best XI. He appeared in 27 matches and logged 2,218 minutes, third most on the team.
“It’s amazing,” Barbara said. “I have to thank God for making it possible, for keeping me healthy and avoiding any long-term injuries. I also must thank my coaches and teammates. Without them, I could have never achieved it.”
Barbara’s 20 goals were nearly twice as many as any other player in the league. Teammate Pablo Campos was second in the NASL with 12 goals. And Barbara’s 20 goals marked just the sixth time in second division history that a player has reached that milestone, the first time since 2003.
Barbara’s season-long scoring surge kicked off in the season opener on April 9. At WakeMed Soccer Park against Puerto Rico, he entered the match as a 79th-minute substitute – hours after completing a 15-hour journey back to the Triangle from his native Malta. He drew and then converted a penalty kick in the 86th minute to tie the match, and that goal kickstarted an eight-game goal-scoring streak and a 12-game point-scoring streak.
By the sixth game of the season, Barbara had nine goals to set a new RailHawks’ single-season goal-scoring record. But he did more than just score goals. His eight assists were tied for most in the league with teammate Jonny Steele. By season’s end, Barbara became the owner of eight club records: most goals in a season, most assists in a season, most points in a season (48), most shots in a season (76), most goals in a career (28), most points in a career (67), most consecutive games with a goal (eight) and most consecutive games with a point (12).
Barbara also had four multi-goal games, including the NASL’s first hat trick in a 4-2 win at Atlanta on Aug. 20.
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This was, as they say–”all but a formality”. Dude had a sick season.
Yup, pretty much a given. Everyone else pailes in comparison.
I still do not think the guy has what it takes to play on my men’s rec team. By the way, my men’s rec team is playing for the championship up at the NSC on Sunday. Let it be known that this will be another championship Etienne Barbara will not be playing in this season.
PS: Session I starts in the beginning of November at the NSC. You can tell his agent we may need him as a bench player as one of our star players just enlisted in the US Navy.
So when does Chicago Fire or Montreal Impact get their hands on him? Or does he have bigger goals?
@Soccer Boy – The gamesmanship is all good. However, any straight-faced argument that Etienne Barbara is less-than-advertised, at least at the U.S. D2 level, is ludicrous. He can dribble, pass and shoot with power effectively with both feet. He led the league in goals AND assists for goodness sake, and he didn’t pad his stats playing for some cellar-dweller but instead the club with the best regular season record. And, he amassed those stats despite being the focal point of every opponent’s defense: the second-leading goal scorer in the league was teammate Pablo Campos, who benefited tremendously from both the attention Barbara drew and Barbara’s ability to distribute the ball. Good luck in the championship series.
Etienne Barbara was by far the best player in the league. I don’t think it is an insult to say he was too good to be playing in D2 in North America. But he didn’t complain and put on a show. It felt like he could score 3 goals a game if he wanted to. Carolina will miss him as much as Rennie.
He could follow Rennie. But Montreal or Chicago seem like good fits. Just stay away from New England unless they clean house.
@Mike – His biggest goal is MLS. That is probably the highest level he can prove himself at. At 29, he is not going to make a big European club at this point based on playing great in U.S. D2.
Very interesting to see what he can do against better MLS defenders.
@enm007, I guess I will never forget Etienne Barbara’s blast point blank off of a saved penalty kick against Joe Warren that has circled the globe 10 times and is still orbiting the Earth. In fact, he choked so bad the paramedics on scene sprinted to the pitch and were ready to perform the Heimlich Maneuver on him.
He certainly never figured much in his matches against the Stars.
He looked pretty sharp against the Stars last weekend. Better than he’s looked against them all season, in fact.
I can’t help but wonder if the team behind him might have kept themselves together a little better at the end of the season if Jonny Steele had been captain?