Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar star as a ninja, cowboy and surfer dude in bizarre Qatar Airways advert

The Barcelona trio, plus Andres Iniesta and Gerard Pique, play dress up

(YouTube/Qatar Airways)

With five of the best footballers in the world at their disposal, Qatar Airways may have decided to go down a familiar route with their latest advert.

But hats off to the marketing department, who decided that the combined talents of Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez, Neymar, Andres Iniesta and Gerard Pique weren't enough to sell seats on their airline.

Instead, they've decided to dress up Lionel Messi as some kind of ninja from The Matrix (or maybe Kill Bill?), Suarez as a cowboy - complete with a horse who can do kick-ups, and Neymar as a surfer dude.

At least those three get a football, Iniesta and Pique are joined by mimes on the streets of Paris to partake in a spot of imaginary ball juggling.

A lot of the video looks as if the players' faces have been super-imposed on top of an actors body...

You have to see it to believe it:

What just happened? I don;t suppose we'd be writing about Qatar Airways otherwise.