How Roberto Carlos made a sleepy Shropshire village the centre of the sporting universe
Normally one man and his dog turn out to watch The Bull in the Barne United in action but, for one day only, the world's eyes were fixated on a sleepy village in Shropshire.
World Cup winner Roberto Carlos was welcomed with a mudbath of a pitch as he swapped the surroundings of Real Madrid's Bernabeu for Hanwood Village Hall.
The world's media descended upon Hanwood, lining up and down the pitch, with reporters and photographers sent from across Europe, South America and beyond.
Around 100 local spectators were allowed in to make sure the Brazilian had a noisy welcome, while those without official access found novel ways to get a glimpse of Carlos - including standing on a JCB bucket in a neighbouring field.
Reports of the legendary left back's appearance in a village with a population of just over 1,000 have spread around the world - from American outlet ESPN to Marca in Spain.
It has even seen coverage from Sport SK in Slovakia, TUTTOmercatoWEB in Italy and Ilta-Sanomat in Finland.
Carlos' opponents for the day, Harlescott Rangers, normally struggle to get enough subs out but the chance to play with Carlos meant the team had a squad of 22 players for the first time ever.
Meanwhile local rivals Lokomotiv Reabrook have 164 followers on Twitter, but saw their video of the Brazilian slotting home a penalty reach more than 300,000 people.
Following the game Carlos committed to the full Sunday League experiences, popping into the Bull in the Barne where he had a go at pulling his own pint.
He then went on to make a casual video call to World Cup winner and Real Madrid legend Sergio Ramos, much to the delight of those in the pub.
A video of the call shared by the Shropshire Star has since gone viral, reaching more than 2.3 million views on Twitter in just three days with thousands more views on Facebook.
The video has been seen all over the world and shared by American based BR Football and football espana reporter Alan Feehely.
The Brazilian, who was also joined by Sky pundit Chris Kamara, got stuck into a bottle of Budweiser before moving onto a pint of Madri, while signing a host of shirts for the Barne players.
Striker Matt 'Chicken' Brown said Carlos had stayed for nearly three hours and said "he was properly down to earth," adding "he was unreal, he could not do enough for us".
"We were just chatting and one of the lads, because there's a Ronaldinho shirt in the bar, said 'you reckon you could get him on FaceTime?', he said 'no, but I will try Sergio'."
For the pub team it was a definite change of pace, with a regular attendance amounting to two – Carl and Janette Torrall, parents of the side's twin players Kieron and Liam Torrall significantly upstaged.
Barne manager Ed Speller said: "Usually it is just Liam and Kieron's mum and dad who come out to watch us so to have an actual crowd was great.
"It is all in good spirit and you don't get many opportunities at this level to play in front of friends and family, it was just incredible."
