Some stories from a year of titles for the youth teams and women, EFL charges and bus fires.
Reds gets windfall from Stones win
Barnsley received a significant windfall when their former player and academy graduate John Stones helped Manchester City win the Champions League in June.
There was a 15 per cent sell-on clause when the Thurlstone man and now England defender moved to Everton in 2013 which applies to all money received by the Toffees who got a reported £2.5million from City for Stones’ Champions League win.
Another former Barnsley player, Brentford striker Ivan Toney, made his England debut but was then banned for eight months after admitting 232 breaches of the Football Association’s betting rules.
Under 18s complete history-making double
Barnsley under 18s won a history-making double in the 2022/23 season.
They won their league by 11 points, taking the title for the first time and going unbeaten at home, then beat Charlton Athletic on penalties in the play-off final.
The majority of the squad remain at the club with several making debuts for the first team in cup competitions while star striker Fabio Jalo is a regular in Neill Collins’ first team.
Women win title then are incorporated into club
It has been a huge year for the Barnsley FC women’s team.
After gaining promotion to the fifth tier in the 2022/23 campaign, they were incorporated into the main Oakwell club during the summer with increased access to training, staff and facilities.
The ultimate aim is for them to reach a much higher level and turn professional. A crowd of more than 2,000 watched them play their first ever game on the first team pitch, where they have played another game since, and they go into 2024 second in their division.
Team bus catches fire on way home from victory at Exeter City
Barnsley’s coach caught fire on the way back from their 1-0 win at Exeter City on October 7.
The bus was engulfed in flames just south of Cheltenham on the M5, with all players and staff exiting safely but losing thousands of pounds worth of club and personal equipment – including Jon Russell’s shoes which left the midfielder wearing bin bags on his feet at the side of the motorway. Neill Collins said ‘we are very fortunate that everyone is fine.’
Iseka’s chaotic year
Aaron Leya Iseka’s bizarre and frustrating Barnsley career took another twist in 2023.
The Belgian striker, who signed a four-year deal in 2021 but has not played since the opening weeks of last season, had to change loan teams in the Turkish second division after his original club Adanaspor withdrew due to the nearby Turkey/Syria Earthquake in February which is estimated to have killed more than 50,000 people. This season, he was loaned to Hapoel Hadera in the Israeli top flight which had to pause after the deadly terror attacks in October. That league restarted this month but Iseka has not played for them and is thought to be back in Belgium ahead of his loan officially ending next month.
EFL charges for Reds
Barnsley, as well as former co-chairmen and current minority owners Paul Conway and Chien Lee, were charged with multiple breaches of EFL regulations in July.
The current board reported the breaches to the EFL and the latest expected timeframe to know the result was at the end of this season.
Local finals return
A Barnsley FA Sunday League final was played at Oakwell for the first time in nine years.
Chief executive Khaled El-Ahmad agreed to bring back the finals, banned by his predecessor Ben Mansford after fan trouble in 2014, on a trial basis with a one-off game and the view to holding all finals at Oakwell in 2024.
West Bretton beat Darfield Cross Keys in the Challenge Cup final.
George record broken
Erling Haaland broke a record held by a former Barnsley player. The Manchester City striker netted his 34th Premier League goal of the 2022/23 campaign in their 2-1 win at Fulham. That meant he has the most goals by a ‘foreign’ player in an English top flight season. The record had previously been held by ex-Red George Robledo who set it with Newcastle United in 1951/52.
