It’ll be hard to control myself if I hit winner against Spurs
IT IS Champions League time again so let’s start with some trivia — how many more times do you need to win the European Cup, Gareth, before you become the Brit who has won it the most?
He isn’t sure of the answer but he is sure of one thing: ‘I know I’m the Welshman who’s won it most times, that’s the main thing.’
Ian Rush won it once, Joey Jones and Ryan Giggs twice. Bale is already on his third and if Real Madrid triumph next May in Kiev he will have equalled Phil Neal’s 33-year-old record of four.
Bale is in relaxed mood despite Madrid’s sweltering summer heat. He has just surprised a group of local schoolchildren who knew they were coming to a sports centre on the outskirts of the city to be part of a Champions League commercial but did not realise Bale was going to be here.
Some are wide-eyed in disbelief. They are an easy crowd but it has not always been that way in the past 12 months.
To listen to some, one would think those Champions League winner’s medals fell into Bale’s lap. It seems to have been forgotten that he scored Madrid’s crucial second goal in the 2014 final and was a man-ofthe-match contender in 2016.
Injury meant he was only a substitute in last season’s final. That, and the emergence of players such as Marco Asensio and Isco — and Jose Mourinho’s desire to take him to Manchester United — prompted a crusade among some fans and media to move him on, especially when it seemed Kylian Mbappe might replace him.
Ultimately, Bale was never close to going. In a summer when Neymar left Leo Messi’s shadow and, at the risk of winning less, became the main man at Paris SaintGermain, Bale could have followed suit, waving goodbye to Cristiano Ronaldo to be king at United.
‘There’s an argument for that,’ says Bale of the win-less-but-bethestar theory, ‘ but the main thing, looking back on your career, is your trophies.’
A Spanish League, a Spanish Cup, a Spanish Super Cup, a Club World Cup and three European Super Cups to go with those three Champions League wins is some haul and he would not have achieved it had he gone anywhere else in 2013 or stayed at Tottenham — the club he is reunited with in this season’s group stage and for whom he still has a lot of affection.
‘I started at Southampton so it will always have that “home” kind of feeling but I grew up at Tottenham,’ he says. ‘I have a lot of great memories. It was a big part of my journey. I love the club and keep in touch with manyy people there. Thee fans were incredible.le. I reallyin enjoyedbig Europeanplaying aypean nights at White Hartrt Lane.
‘It was a shame wee didn’t win as many trophies as I’d have liked. I’ve spoken to Luka (Modric) about it. We were there or thereabouts to win the league and just dipped at the end. When you look at the team we had, we feel that we should have won something.’
Neither player won a medal, and Bale admits Modric’s departure to Real Madrid in 2012 was a factor in his following a year later.
‘He was a reason why I came to Madrid. It helped me settle a lot quicker. Having someone to help is massive, especially with such a big move abroad.’
There were times early on that Modric looked for Bale while others seemed to have eyes only for Ronaldo. Such office politics are a distant memory now.
The squad’s togetherness is another reason why they are Champions League favourites but what of the prospect of facing his former club next month?
‘I was in a meeting when the draw was made and my phone was going off constantly so I knew something had happened! I remember playing against Real at Tottenham. Peter Crouch was sent off after 15 minutes and it killed the game for us.
‘All my friends are still Spurs fans. I will certainly have a lot of ticket requests.’
Bale has mixed feelings that he will be playing at Wembley rather than White Hart Lane — going back would have been special. ‘It was that typical old-style British stadium,’ he says. ‘The fans were on top of you and the atmosphere stayed in.
‘In new stadiums it’s harder to generate the same noise but I
4 GARETH BALE is one of four British players to win the Champions League with a foreign club. Paul Lambert did it at Borussia Dortmund, Steve McManaman with Real Madrid and Owen Hargreaves at Bayern Munich.
suppose other things are taken into consideration. Clubs have to maximise revenue and can’t just think about what arena makes for the best atmosphere.’
Tottenham were terrible at Wembley in the Champions League last season but Bale knows that big arenas can also become fortresses. You won’t hear anyone at Real Madrid wishing the Bernabeu was a tighter ground.
‘The atmosphere is not quite as on top of you but you can still make it your fortress,’ says Bale.
How different is the Bale who goes back to London four years after his ¤100million move?
‘I’m a different player,’ he says, ‘I’ve had to change. When you’re a young player people figure you out so you have to find other ways to get past them.
‘It’s been an eventful journey from coming in to Spurs from Southampton as a left back to pretty much playing out on the right wing, or at least up front. It feels like I got on the football ladder and kept climbing.’
That need to find new tricks has been cranked up further by his coach, Zinedine Zidane, turning Real from counter-attack killers into pass-and-move dominators.
‘We have a lot of the ball and in the attacking half there is not the space to run into,’ says Bale. ‘It’s more about keeping possession. In the Premier League you can be the better team and still lose because it is so end-to-end.’
It almost sounds like he is missing English football. There is little doubt it would better suit him than Madrid’s new tiki-taka but it is also true that he has adapted like few before him.
Has Spain changed him to the point where he would indulge in the custom of not celebrating scoring against an old team?
‘I scored against Spurs in a preseason game a couple of years ago and didn’t really celebrate,’ he laughs. ‘It depends on how you feel on the day. If it’s a 91st-minute winner, can you control yourself?’
Tottenham will start both games against Madrid as underdogs but then so will everyone else. Strangely for a club that made their name as the galacticos, spendingdi h huge sums t to alwaysl endd up with the world’s most expensive player, Real have not broken a transfer record since buying Bale. Yet they now have arguably the best squad in their history.
‘Yes, we’re strong but if we don’t perform, we haven’t got a great squad. We know what we’re capable of. It is just a case of doing it again and again and again.’
THAT relentless drive has been a big part of Madrid’s success, along with the acceptance of rotation to allow the new wave to come through. ‘Everyone who has come in has done really well,’ says Bale reeling off the names of Isco, asensio, Lucas Vazquez and adding Marcos Llorente — tipped to be Spain’s next Sergio Busquets.
‘Sometimes you reach the end of the season feeling the effects of playing 50 games. Having a few matches off makes a massive difference. It showed last season when we won the league and the Champions League for the first time in so many years.’
The clamour for Isco and asensio to start ahead of Bale has intensified after the former’s brilliant performance for Spain against Italy last week and the latter’s wonder goals against Valencia two weeks ago. BaleB l arrivedi d as R Ronaldo’sld ’ long-term replacement but the Portuguese Peter Pan is still flying high. Now the young stars want Bale’s starting berth.
But Bale still has faith in his ability to remain in the first XI. ‘I just want to enjoy my football,’ he says. ‘I want to do well for myself but also want to try to help the team win trophies.’
Back on the pitch with the kids, Bale is re-enacting some of the key moments from his 2014 Champions League final appearance for the commercial. He’s just dinked one left-foot cross to the back post for a boy to nod home before wheeling away arms outstretched, stopping short of re-enacting the knee slide that would really have invoked Bale’s famous goal.
His critics can say what they want but the silverware stacks up. Bale is ready to begin the journey towards a fourth Champions League this week and if he were to return to England in 2018, he would do so as Britain’s most successful football export ever.