As a child, he played with his friends a lot, and some of them were really good. He started going with them to small neighbourhood clubs to play, and eventually was seen by Huracan.
After a little time in there, they decided that he was not growing at the expected rate (too small for his age), and before he knew it he was let go.
He wanted to quit football altogether, but his dad insisted that he had the ability to make it.
Then he joined Argentinos Juniors (how many players have they produced!!!!), and his life changed.
Not because of his success there, but because he fell in love with football all over again, and still is until today.
His spells in Argentina were nothing to write home about. He always had something about him, coaches knew he could one day score regularly, but he was not mature enough just yet. He caught up in height and strength with other players of his age, but the goals were not coming as much.
He played 15 games with Argentinos and scored 5 goals, then was loaned out to Tigre where he played 17 but no goals, Then his first Chilean experience arrived when he played for Deportes Temuco (then on the top division), scoring 12 times in 28 games.
That caught the eye of Tiro Federal (Rosario, Argentina) team that signed him for their top flight campaign. He only managed 1 goal in 12 games, but had left a good image in Chile and Cobreloa signed him for the 06/07 seasons. He had a few disciplinary issues but scored 26 in 41 games catching the eye of many teams (Dynamo Kiev, Necaxa, Atlas, Panathinaikos, Espanyol and Nancy amongst others), but signed for Atlas (Mexico) where he scored 1 in 14 outings. He went to Colo-Colo (Chile) and club and player click straight away. He stayed there for 2 years 08 and 09, playing 67 games and scoring 57 times. He even finished the year 2008 as the top world scorer of any top division in the world with 37 goals (that also made him joint top scorer in one season in Colo-Colo’s history).
Internationally, he decided to become Paraguayan citizen (his mother was born there), and has played 6 official games for Paraguay, scoring once. Adding the 6 friendlies where he scored 5 goals. His tally goes up to 6 international goals.
Borusia Dortmund came after him in 2009, and paid U$6.5m (a profit of U$4.5m in 2 years for Colo-Colo) taking him to the Bundesliga.
He scored for Dortmund on his first and second games, making an instant impact. He finished 3rd best scorer on his first season there with 23 goals (19 league, 4 cup).
And with Barrios scoring for fun (20 domestically plus another 4 in European competitions), Borusia Dortmund won the title in 2010/11, 2 games before the end of the season.
This season, has seen the growth of local heroes Mario Gotze and Kevin Grosskreutz , and the new found maturity of Polish striker Robert Lewandowski and Japanese link player Shinji Kagawa and that has relegated Barrios to only 3 starts with no goals.
This new development has alerted a few EPL teams. The first one to make a move was QPR, but the 27 years old said (by coincidence?) that unless a team of Arsenal’s status came up he would stay and fight for his place at Dortmund.
It is not everyday, that a hard working, goalscoring honest individual of this stature invites a club to make a move.
Arsenal enquired and were told it will take around €10m (£8m) for his club to consider letting Barrios go.
By this time the usual internal discussions started at the London club. And the clock started ticking.
In football nothing is secret anymore. Clubs, agents, and players have many ways to let people know what’s going on.
So other big clubs were made aware of Barrios’ availability and got thrown into the mix.
Manchester City were the first ones to show interest, but as much as Dortmund knows cash is not a problem for City, the player would not leave his current club to warm the bench somewhere else. And City may need back up, but when you already have Aguero, Dzeko and Ballotelli, not much game time there for Barrios, who is not keen on that move.
Then Liverpool entered the race, and they are serious contenders. Dalglish is a very important figure, the club has pedigree, and this season has shown that King Kenny is willing to give time to all and rotate players to keep freshness.
So, the player invited Arsenal in, they enquired, but did their usual and stalled a little.
They have space for Barrios to play regularly, he wants to go there and he likes the club, but there is not much time left, and the clock is running down towards the end of the transfer window.
Arsenal can benefit from a player who can release some pressure from Van Persie, by scoring a few goals, and muscling his way through some defences, turning attention away from the overworked Dutchman.
If after all this Liverpool signs Barrios, someone will need to look into how Arsene Wenger and his team negotiate for potential transfers, and if need be sort them out as they are losing too many potential good players.
You can have the best scouting network in the world, but if the guys that make the decisions don’t do anything after you find them potential targets, all that hard work becomes in vain, and other clubs with less infrastructure and pedigree end up getting the guys you discovered in the first place.
The money required for two signings from Barrios to some other players linked to the club (Jan Vertonghen, Huntelaar, Dempsey, Samba, Podolski) is gathering dust inside Arsenal’s vault.
The same way as some Arsenal players are overstaying their welcome at the club.
The fans deserve to know more about what is happening in the club they support through thick and thin.