Gareth Barry reveals how a McDonald's stop ended with him in handcuffs in Barcelona

Gareth Barry, the midfielder who played more Premier League minutes than any other player in the competition’s history, has revealed how a late-night McDonald’s run during a West Brom team bonding trip to Barcelona in 2018 ended with him sitting in the back of a Spanish police car in handcuffs.

Barry, now 45, was joined by team-mates Jonny Evans, Jake Livermore and Boaz Myhill on the night in question. The four players had already broken their curfew at an Irish bar past midnight when hunger struck on the way back to the hotel. Speaking on the In The Mixer podcast, Barry recalled asking the taxi driver to stop at a nearby McDonald’s — a request that quickly spiralled out of control.

“For some reason, he got out of the car to order it, which was a mistake by the taxi driver,” Barry said. “One of us decides to jump in and drive the taxi away as a bit of a joke and said, ‘We’ll drive it around outside, around in a circle and bring it back.’”

The plan unravelled almost immediately. The group took a wrong turn and ended up on a highway, at which point Barry decided to get out and return to the driver to explain. By the time he arrived back at the McDonald’s, the police were already there.

“So I called the lads and said, ‘Don’t come back. The police are here,’” he said. “They continued on and I think they go and take the taxi to the hotel like good boys. But then I’m in handcuffs looking for them. In the police car!”

The remaining three players parked the taxi around the corner from the hotel, and the group reconvened — only to face a team meeting the following morning with manager Alan Pardew, who informed the squad that someone had stolen a taxi.

“I say to the boys, ‘Look, four of us have broken the curfew. We don’t throw anyone under the bus,’” Barry recalled. “We stayed in it together. We went down the police station… we broke curfew and it was unprofessional. Just one of those team bonding moments that got out of hand.”

None of the four players faced criminal punishment as a result of the incident. Barry retired in 2021 having made 653 Premier League appearances — a record that also included 54,439 top-flight minutes and 123 yellow cards, the most in the division’s history.