Melbourne Storm's Billy Slater and Collingwood's Dale Thomas hit the streets of Barcelona to give locals a taste of our sporting codes.
Billy Slater with David Villa, middle, and Dale Thomas during a visit to Barcalona. Source: News Limited
Barcelona FC striker David Villa learns two play new football codes from Melbourne Storm's Billy Slater and Collingwood's Dale Thomas.
THEY are superstars from rival codes but Melbourne Storm's Billy Slater and Collingwood's Dale Thomas hooked up in Barcelona last week to shoot an Adidas promotion.News Limited was invited along for the ride, Paul Crawley reports.
As far as end-of-season trips go, this was a cracker. Two of Australia's biggest football stars touring Barcelona, all expenses paid.
For Collingwood's Dale Thomas, it was his first trip to Europe after a week in London with his girlfriend Kylee Carlsen.
Billy Slater and his wife Nicole arrived after their adventure through South Africa, where they visited game parks and swam with great white sharks.
On the first night, they sat around the hotel bar having a couple of beers and trading stories.
Nicole shared the story behind the story of the NRL grand final - and how she missed the big fight because, as she put it, "the kids were chewing my ear off."
That's when her husband piped up, "What about my ear", as Slater recalled the moment Canterbury prop James Graham attacked his ear like it was a T-bone steak.
The stories rolled from one to the next.
They were brought over to try and turn the bustling Barcelona streets into an Aussie sideshow to promote Adidas' new boot, the Adizero F50 - and while they never made the nightly TV news, there's no denying the two players struck up a wonderful friendship.
For two days they cruised the streets constantly trying to out-do each other with their favourite trick shots.
Slater introduces some young fans to the game of rugby league. Source: News Limited
For the most part, the large crowds had no idea who they were or what the hell they were doing in Spain.
Still, they watched on curiously, and they cheered.
At the famous Placa Reial just off La Rambla, the two Aussies brought lunchtime crowds to a standstill as Spanish waiters stopped serving customers and pulled up a chair for the show.
Everywhere they went, Billy and Dale received a similar reception.
At the National Art Museum that overlooks Barcelona's stunning skyline, school kids from Russia jostled for autographs.
Slater and Thomas toy around in the streets of Barcalona. Source: News Limited
They had no clue about NRL or AFL - but knew these blokes were "famous" because of the cameras following their every move.
Even one of Spain's biggest football stars, David Villa, got in on the act, giving up his time to trade skills.
Villa had just finished training with Barcelona ahead of last week's Champions League showdown with Celtic when he arrived for the afternoon shoot.
In the lead up, the boys were a little nervous about what sort of bloke the Spanish superstar would turn out to be because his minders had demanded the stadium be in lockdown for his appearance, with secure parking for his luxury car.
Villa earns $7 million Euro a year playing for Barcelona, more than our top footy teams spend on entire salary caps.
But when he arrived he was warm and friendly and full of smiles - and while the language barrier made it difficult to communicate, their respective skills spoke all languages.
It was magical to watch.
For an hour or so they laughed and joked and showed off their tricks.
Modestly, Villa said through his interpreter: "It is honestly a very complicated sport, both of them are anything in sport is obviously a great thing."
That's about all he said - but more than his words, his genuine smile suggested he'd enjoyed the experience every bit as much as the two Aussies who chased after him for an autograph when it was over.
Sometimes, sportsmen can get spoiled in situations like this.
You see them carry on like good sorts when they are asked to do "work" for sponsors and you wonder if they really appreciate just how lucky they are.
But on this trip there was none of that, just two good blokes having the time of their lives and being paid to do it.
Perhaps their new friendship was best summed up by what happened on the very final moment of shooting.
Just hours before Thomas was due to fly home he was attempting one final trick when things went a little pear-shaped.
Daisy has a leg at some big sticks that sort of resemble AFL goals in Barcalona. Source: News Limited
With Slater daring him on, Thomas scooped up the ball between his feet and in the next motion tried to snap the Sherrin through two giant poles that resembled AFL posts.
For two days, these two had gone one-up on each other every step of the way, running up and down Barcelona's paved streets on these new-age boots without incident.
But then on this last shot Thomas pushed the limits and down he went like a tonne of bricks.
He bounced up almost as quickly but with bark off him everywhere.
Blood was seeping through his ripped shirt.
As you could imagine, everyone was worried Thomas had done himself a serious injury.
But that's when he put on his best show of the trip, a little moment that perfectly summed up the man.
He simply got up wearing this big cheesy grin - and when he looked up at Slater, they both laughed.
Right then you realised this wasn't just a show for the cameras, it was fair dinkum fun.
The Adizero F50 boot launches in December.
