Bale on bid to join European greats
G areth Bale’s place among the most individually thrilling players in British football history is already secure but he is also now just five matches away from joining the most select group of winners in European competition.
Only eight British players have won the Champions League – or what was the European Cup – three times or more, and Bale is within sight of becoming the first from outside the legendary Liverpool team of the Seventies and Eighties to achieve that feat. Real Madrid face Bayern Munich tomorrow night in a truly heavyweight quarter-final clash, with Bale’s team also going for a third title in four years, as well as a double in La Liga, where they remain three points ahead of Barcelona with a game in hand.
“It would be an incredible achievement, especially as no club has won the Champions League in back-to-back seasons since the new format came in,” said Bale. “Both are so important to the club and the fans, so it would be amazing to do the double.”
Yet ask Bale for his wider footballing ambitions and, aside from winning La Liga and more Champions League titles, he instantly mentions a third dream. After inspiring Wales to the semi-finals of Euro 2016 last year, it is to help his country write more history at the final stages of an international tournament. “You’ve got to aim high,” he says.
To that end, Bale also now wants manager Chris Coleman to reconsider his plan to return to club football at the end of a World Cup qualifying campaign which hangs in the balance amid a sequence of four consecutive draws. Asked if he hoped that Coleman would stay on, Bale said: “Of course. What he has done for the team and Welsh football has been amazing. He couldn’t have taken on the job at a more difficult time, and what we’ve collectively achieved since then has been amazing.
“We don’t want to keep on looking back at the Euros. For everyone it was incredible to be a part of that and we all want that again. It would mean everything to reach Russia – we’ve only reached one World Cup finals before and that was back in the Fifties. Qualification could have gone better, but we’re going to do everything we can to get there.
“It won’t be easy and there’s a lot we have to do in the group now but Chris is the man who can keep us focused and positive and show us how to get the results we need.”
Bale will take on some old acquaintances against Bayern Munich tomorrow. Carlo Ancelotti was the manager when Bale scored in the final as Real won their 10th Champions League title. It was also a third Champions League for Ancelotti, who could this year break the managerial record he shares with Bob Paisley. “He had a relaxed playing style and was very easy to play under; a very laid-back manager,” says Bale.
In the centre of Bayern’s midfield is Xabi Alonso, who was a team-mate of Bale at Madrid, and a player who has won everything in football for club and country. Bale says that Alonso’s on-field influence, intelligence and experience are so rare that the entire team have to adjust if he is not playing. He is expecting an “evenly contested” game, and believes that the tie will ultimately be decided by who is most clinical in front of goal. If so, the contest between Bale, Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema and Arjen Robben, Robert Lewandowski and Franck Ribéry may prove decisive.
That Bale now stands among such elevated company has been a testament to his extraordinary dedication and resilience since the time, only 12 years ago, when Southampton thought seriously about not even awarding him an academy contract. The question that Southampton staff were asking was whether he would be physically and mentally tough