BEN BARBA may have only been on UK shores for 18 months, but, in that time, the maverick fullback lit up Super League like few before or since.
Signing for St Helens towards the back end of the 2017 Super League season, Barba went on to score 34 tries in 34 appearances, winning the Man of Steel in the process in 2018.
At the end of 2018, Barba returned home to the NRL, but that was despite Saints offering him a bumper deal, according to the maverick himself.
“Saints offered me a five-year contract to play and then if I was slowing down, I could go into coaching, but I wanted to come home to North Queensland. I lost my mum’s mum,” Barba told the Yeah Nice Sports podcast.
“They were so friendly over there, when I said I wanted to go they understood.”
That being said, Barba enjoyed his time in the UK, especially culturally and vowed to himself that he would always do his best for the Saints.
“A lot of players go over there knowing they will get a sh*t load of money. I toured the world when I was over there, we get like four or five days off and everywhere is so close. It was an hour flight to Spain, Paris and toured Europe.
“At the time Justin Holbrook was our coach and he would tell us we had four days off and to go on holiday. At the time Saints were killing it.
“The one thing I always made sure of, when I was there, I wasn’t going over there to take a paycheck – I made sure I was the highest-paid player over there, but I was going to earn my money and do my job.”
