Barrett‘s Story:
A youth international for Republic of Ireland, Josh Barret is an attacking midfielder who has already represented the Royals Under-21s squad competitively, despite being just 17.  

Having held his own alongside high-calibre players, he has also captained the youth side to the quarter-final of the FA Youth Cup, and on a number of occasions, has shown match-winning quality and is capable of scoring goals from behind a striker. 

Barrett made his bow for the senior team from the bench in the late stages of Reading’s visit to Huddersfield Town in March 2016, becoming the 38th player to have graduated from our Academy and represent the first-team. 

After replacing Chris Gunter as a substitute in that tie, it was his first taste of professional first-team football, having travelled with the squad as an unused sub on three previous occasions – the first of which came back in December when the squad travelled up to Preston.

He went on to make two more appearances that season, earning 45 minutes in the final home game of the season against Preston, before starting his first game at Blackburn on the last day of the campaign under Brian McDermott.