AFL star Jobe Watson 'pulled an Andy Lee' to steal the heart of his new girlfriend.

As far as football careers go, Jobe Watson’s has been littered with the ultimate highs and just as many lows.

After being banned from the game after Essendon’s 2012 supplements scandal, and subsequently being stripped of his 2012 Brownlow Medal, the former Essendon captain got on a plane, headed to New York and set up camp in a city where no one knew his name and no one knew his story.

It was there Watson met new girlfriend, 26-year-old pre-med student and model Virginia Slaghekke, who has since temporarily moved to Melbourne after Watson returned for the 2017 season.

And in an interview with the Herald Sun, Slaghekke told the paper the duo met last August in a coffee shop.

A photo posted by Virginia Slaghekke (@virginias90) on Oct 25, 2016 at 10:29am PDT

“We met in a coffee shop in New York. He was having breakfast and he ran after me with his number on a napkin,” Slaghekke said.

“Power to the napkin. He was very nervous when he did it, but it worked out well.’’

Naturally, the story of their union draws strong parallels with the way Australian comedian Andy Lee won the heart of his own girlfriend, Rebecca Harding, in a Melbourne cafe.

A photo posted by Virginia Slaghekke (@virginias90) on Nov 10, 2016 at 10:52am PST

“Bec and I met at a café… I quite liked her,” Andy told his radio show in 2015. “I was trying to chat to her, so I was ordering a lot.”

Every time Rebecca came around to his table to check on his order, Andy says he tried to drum up the courage to ask her out. Eventually, he left a note on the café napkin.

For Slaghekke, though, she had little idea about Watson’s fame and his profile back in Australia, nor had she any clue was AFL was.

“The way I know Jobe is from New York and there he is just Jobe. He is just Jobe to me,” she said.