Matador steals show when two Spains face off

BARCELONA, Spain, June 21 (Reuters) There is often talk of two Spains, right and left or traditional and modern; the debate will go on for years but one issue was settled long ago.

Soccer is more popular than bullfighting.

It's been that way for decades. But for all the stadiums, multi-million-euro transfers and blanket media coverage, it would be hard for soccer to compete for drama and intensity with the comeback of bullfighter Jose Tomas.

On the evening Real Madrid and Barcelona were playing out the final dramatic act of the Primera Liga soccer season, Barcelona's bullring was packed to the rafters with 19,000 fans -- the first time the bullring in the Catalan capital had seen a sell-out for 22 years.

That was no coincidence. Tomas had some of his greatest triumphs in the Barcelona ring before mysteriously quitting five years ago at the height of his powers.

''He is extraordinary,'' said a man who gave his name only as Manuel, who saw Tomas's return. ''I'm not the world's greatest expert on bullfighting, but Jose Tomas has something special.

For me, he's unique.'' Recent years have been hard for bullfighting in Catalonia, with an active animal rights movement and anti-bullfighting politicians trying to get the spectacle banned in Barcelona.

It's never quite happened but diminishing crowds have done their own damage, to the extent that bullfighting was in danger of fading away.

So, for Tomas to choose Barcelona for his comeback was a political decision as well as a sentimental one.

And it worked for everyone.

Antonio Matilla, the very happy Barcelona impresario with a sold-out bullring, said: ''Nobody could have told me that I'd do a thing like this.'' The occasion also produced huge publicity for bullfighting in Spain and outside with international media such as the Wall Street Journal and Financial Times turning their attention to the phenomenon of Tomas.

And it gave something to the anti-bullfighting lobby to get its teeth into.

PROTESTERS SHOUTED DOWN Several thousand vociferous animal rights campaigners were outside the bullring on Sunday chanting ''assassins'' as bullfight fans streamed in.

They held placards saying ''Enough'' and had planned to try and disrupt people's entry into the bullring. With the help of the police, the strategy didn't work and there were no serious confrontations although plenty of insults were exchanged.

An anti-bullfighting campaigner who had gone to the trouble of buying a ticket to protest inside the ring was shouted down by aficionados and removed by the police.

That ticket could have been very expensive.

Black market prices in the week before the fight had been running as high as 3,000 euros 4,000 dollars for a ticket with a face value of 150 euros and the few hundred tickets put on sale on the day were snapped up in about 25 minutes.

And what of Tomas? A triumph, of course, although the 31-year-old master was thrown by his first bull and was a little wayward with the sword. But such slow-motion elegance, such valour and such a reception -- there were at least three standing ovations before the first bull had even appeared.

Monday's national daily newspapers were all a clamour.

''And the myth was made flesh in Barcelona,'' was the ABC headline. El Mundo also took a religious tone with, ''Barcelona consecrates Jose Tomas.'' But he was outdone in terms of trophies by young bullfighter Cayetano, who is the grandson of the great Antonio Ordonez, a long-time favourite of Ernest Hemingway, and son of Paquirri, a bullfighting great who died in the ring in 1984.

Both men were carried aloft from the ring into the Carrer de la Marina where protesters were still giving the whole spectacle a firm thumbs-down.

As bullfight fans congregated at Barcelona airport for the return trip to the many places they had come from, Pepe, a fan from Madrid, summed up the feeling.

''No one will have to tell us about what happened today, we were there and we saw it.'' And who won the soccer showdown in the other Spain? Well, that's another story ...

REUTERS NY RK0915