A robust and clever midfield player, who seems to have that precious habit of arriving in the opposition box with perfect timing to both score and set up goals himself.
Barkley's rise through the England ranks saw him feature for both the U16s and U17s, where he always offered coaches a wholehearted and effective performance through the centre and this was perfectly illustrated in the European U17 Championships of 2010 when the Everton ace was an important member of John Peacock's team in Liechtenstein.
He continued that development into the U19s age group, when his debut performance against Slovakia saw him set-up the opening goal of the game with one of those aforementioned timely breaks forward and then awareness of his team-mates to slip a pass to Michael Ngoo. Call-ups and caps with the Under-21s have also followed.
Barkley is also a strong header of the ball, so is equally comfortably with the ball arriving in the air as he is on the ground.