Gareth Bale is set to fly to England on Friday to complete his return to Tottenham Hotspur.
A deal for Bale to rejoin Spurs on
loan from Real Madrid is still being negotiated. Talks between the clubs are
progressing positively and as long as they are concluded in the same manner,
Bale will travel to London.
According to journalist Fabrizio
Romano, “Gareth Bale is coming back to Tottenham. The agreement is getting
closer - last details then the deal will be done. Bale already told to his
teammates that he’s going to Spurs.”
“This is the closest Gareth has been
to leave, talks on-going,” also said his agent Jonathan Barnett to BBC.
“Gareth will fly tomorrow to London.
He’ll complete medicals and join #THFC - one year loan. Mourinho approved the
deal. Sergio Reguilon expected for tomorrow too,” added Romano.
Gareth Bale was the Prince of the
English Premier League in the last decade. While playing for the Tottenham
Hotspur, the wizard from Wales became the poster boy of English football. His
hunger for goals, pace, power, and astonishing skills did not miss the eye of
Real Madrid boss – Florentino Perez. With the arch-rivals – Barcelona enjoying
an absolute rosy period, Perez wished to transform the Real forward line into a
force to reckon so that it can not only win titles at home but in European
competitions as well.
On September 1, 2013, Real Madrid
announced that they had reached an agreement for the transfer of Bale, signing
a six-year deal in a then world-record deal.
The Spanish press and Real Madrid TV
reported that Bale had cost £77 million (€91 million), while the British press
reported a world record transfer fee of £85.3 million (€100 million), which
would be above Cristiano Ronaldo's transfer record fee of £80 million (€94
million).
Bale was presented at the Santiago
Bernabeu, but his start was not free from trouble.
The first half of Bale's season was
plagued by injuries; of Real's first 16 games after his signing, Bale missed
five and was substituted on or off in six others, playing only five full games.
Still, he fought back and forged a threesome combo with the great Cristiano
Ronaldo and French striker Karim Benzema – people know them as the famous BBC:
Bale, Benzema, and Cristiano.
Cristiano went from strength to
strength in the last decade and would become the best player in the history of
Los Blancos and of course the best in the modern era.
But Gareth Bale did have his moments
and they had been quite memorable ones.
Let us have a look at the top 6
Gareth Bale moments in Real Madrid:
7. The first goal for the Royal Whites – September 14, 2013
Bale was plagued by injuries during
the start of the 2013-14 season. It was quite frustrating for fans that such a
high-profile transfer had not yet shown up but was left warming the bench. But
in the match against Villarreal at the El Madrigal, Bale took the field wearing
the famous white shirt.
Within 38 minutes, Bale was on the
score-sheet.
A goal for Real Madrid on debut.
He got onto the end of a cross from
Dani Carvajal and slotted the ball past the Villareal goalkeeper, Sergio
Asenjo, from the edge of the six-yard box.
Bale’s goal brought Real Madrid
level with the hosts who had already taken the lead through Ruben Cani earlier
in the half.
But he was substituted later in the
game for Angel Di Maria.
Real Madrid failed to secure all
three points as Mexican international Giovani Dos Santos scored in the 70th
minute to salvage a point for Villareal after Cristiano Ronaldo had put the
visitors ahead six minutes earlier.
The coach, Carlo Ancelotti was
delighted with his performance and so was the press.
Bale's second appearance for Madrid
came in a 6–1 victory over Galatasaray in the Champions League. Although Bale
only played the final 26 minutes, his free-kick led to Cristiano Ronaldo's
second goal of the game.
- The first hat-trick for the Royal Whites – November 30,
2-13
It was the match against Real
Valladolid, where the Los Blancos were without the services of their superstar
Cristiano Ronaldo. The Santiago Bernabeu would not witness their favourite
star, but Real have Bale in their side and Bernabeu wanted the Welshman to rose
to the occasion.
Bale smashed a hat-trick – two goals
came from his right and left foot, while the other from a header,
It was a perfect hat-trick.
After 30 minutes into the game,
Valladolid goalkeeper’s attempt to save Angel di Maria’s powerful shot led to
the ball falling kindly for Bale who headed it into the empty net.
Bale then assisted as he delivered a
fine cross for Karim Benzema to make it 2-0.
The Welshman scored his second of
the game when the Valladolid defence failed to deal with a cross from Marcelo;
Bale pounced on it and his shot hit the back of the net.
The Welshman completed his hat-trick
in the 89th minute after he got on the end of another cross from Marcelo and
Bale asked all his team-mates to sign the match ball which he took home.
- Fantastic 4 – December 20, 2015
The 2015-16 season for Gareth Bale
was not chummy. Yet again, injuries interfered with his progress and he could
feature in just 31 matches.
However, he did manage to find the
back of the net 19 times in 23 league outings and four of those goals came in
the 10-2 thrashing of Real Vallecano at the Santiago Bernabeu.
Two of Real Vallecano’s players were
sent off inside the first half-hour and it was an afternoon to forget for the
visitors.
Four goals from Bale, a Benzema
hat-trick, a brace from Ronaldo, and a Danilo goal completed the rout.
Bale scored his first of the
afternoon in the twenty-fifth-minute when Danilo delivered a beautiful cross
into the box which the Welshman headed home.
Bale was given the freedom to run
into the Vallecano box and he fired a shot into the corner in the 41st minute
to bag his second goal of the match.
He completed his hat-trick just
after the hour mark as he slotted home Cristiano Ronaldo’s cross. Bale then
tried to set up Ronaldo in the seventieth-minute but his cross was deflected
into his own path and he scored his fourth goal.
Even though he didn't play as much
as he would have liked that season, Bale had a spectacular end to the campaign
as Real Madrid won the champions league for the second time in three years.
- Amazing in the UEFA Super Cup – August 12, 2014
A UEFA Super Cup record 30,854 crowd
were present at the Cardiff City Stadium as Ronaldo, who had set a UEFA
Champions League scoring record in 2013/14, picked up where he had left off. It
was Madrid's second UEFA Super Cup, like in the UEFA Champions League ending a
12-year wait.
With Xabi Alonso suspended, Ronaldo,
started alongside new recruits James Rodriguez and Toni Kroos and Bale.
Bale played full 90 minutes and
played one of the best matches for Real Madrid. He was instrumental in
providing Cristiano the assist of his first goal.
Bale, the darling of the home
crowd, injected pace down the left before sending over an inch-perfect
left-footed cross into the path of Ronaldo, who beat Sevilla keeper Beto from
close range.
That move was the perfect
demonstration of Real's forward fluidity and Bale played a big role.
After the match, his performance was
described as "amazing" by Ronaldo!
- The European Glory – May 24, 2014
Since Zinedine Zidane scripted that
eye-popping finish in 2002 to bag the UEFA Champions League, the Los Blancos
had been without a European glory for twelve long years.
But the long wait was over in the
2013-14 season.
The La Liga winners Atletico Madrid faced
Carlo Ancelotti’s Real Madrid in Lisbon - It was the first time in history that
two clubs from the same city made it to the final of the most prestigious
competition in Europe.
However, Real Madrid’s hopes of
scripting La Decima looked bleak.
Diego Godin opened the scoring for
the La Liga champions in the 36th minute until Sergio Ramos equalized in the
last seconds of the game and forcing extra-time.
Penalties were on the horizon before
Gareth Bale seized the moment. He headed in to put Real Madrid in the lead
after Atletico goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois’s save from a powerful Angel di
Maria shot deflected the ball into Bale’s path.
Then Real Madrid hit two more goals
and the match was over.
Bale’s first season in Real Madrid
had been satisfactory.
- The magic at Kyiv – May 26, 2018
Real Madrid, under the leadership of
Zinedine Zidane, gained new momentum after a scratchy start to the 2015-16
season. They won the UEFA Champions League in 2015-16, 2016-17, and in 2017-18,
the Royal Whites were eyeing to complete the hat-trick.
The match got off to an absolutely
blistering start, with Liverpool using their scintillating attacking speed to
batter Real Madrid’s defense, while Madrid used their own lethal counter-attack
to keep Liverpool honest. The opening stages of the match were very much a
tactical chess match, but it was played at such an intense pace and with so
many scoring chances that it was much more exciting than many such feeling-out
periods in massive matches like this.
he first big turn in the match came
in devastating fashion for Liverpool — Mo Salah has been at the core of
everything Liverpool’s attack had done this season and in the early stretches
of the game, and Sergio Ramos took him down hard with his arm tangled
underneath him just before the half-hour mark. That left Salah down clutching
his shoulder in very obvious pain, and while he tried to carry on, it quickly
became obvious that he had to leave the pitch.
He was replaced by Adam Lallana, who
is a very good player in his own right, but just can’t give Liverpool the same
kind of attacking thrust that Salah does, nor is he as valuable in their
pressing defense.
Real Madrid suffered an injury of
their own a few minutes later when Dani Carvajal landed awkwardly after
over-stretching for a ball at Liverpool’s end of the pitch, forcing Madrid’s
right-back off the pitch with Nacho coming on to take his place.
Real Madrid would get the ball in
the back of the net just before halftime, with Loris Karius saving well on a
header from Cristiano Ronaldo, only to allow Karim Benzema to tap in the
rebound.
Liverpool responded brilliantly,
though, bringing the pressure of their own and pushing hard at Madrid’s goal.
That forced a corner kick just a few minutes after Real Madrid took their lead,
and when Sergio Ramos couldn’t cleanly head it away, Sadio Mane was there at
the near post to turn in the loose ball out of the air.
Zidane responded by bringing
in Bale off the bench to give his team more attacking thrust, seemingly
targeting a somewhat shaky Any Robertson on Liverpool’s left side — but no one
in Liverpool’s defence was at fault when Bale scored moments later with a
brilliant bicycle kick goal that was out of this world.
Bale brought the National Stadium of
Kyiv to a standstill with this magical moment.
His left foot made an impact with
the ball at 1.82-meter, but the force he generated made the ball, which reached
a speed of 61km/h, was unstoppable.
You don’t get to witness such
astonishing goals in the finals of the Champions League.
Then Karius made another glaring mistake
in the 83rd minute.
Bale uncorked a strong shot from
range, and Karius got in front of it — but his angle was completely wrong, and
he parried it straight into the back of his own net to make an already-bad
night for the German goalkeeper into an absolute nightmare.
The Los Blancos completed the
hat-trick!
1. Destroying Barcelona – April 16, 2014
The finals took place in Mestalla,
Valencia.
Cristiano Ronaldo would not play and
in order to compensate for the loss of their talisman, Madrid moved Bale over
to the left-wing with Di Maria taking up the spot on the right. Isco filled the
Argentine’s midfield role while Coentrao replaced Marcelo.
Tata Martino puzzlingly decided to
start Cesc Fabregas over both Alexis Sanchez and Pedro as the striker in a tactically
fluid formation. Marc Bartra and Javier Mascherano formed the central defensive
pairing in the place of their injured teammates while the Veteran Jose Manuel
Pinto started between the sticks for the Blaugrana.
A ripping counter-attack 10 minutes
into the match ended with a Di Maria goal. The crowd roared as the winger
placed his shot in between Jordi Alba’s legs and just beyond the hands of
Pinto.
Shortly after half-time, Gareth Bale
created another chance for Real Madrid. After a hard tackle on Cesc Fabregas,
Dani Carvajal did well to get the ball to Bale on the wing. The Welshman
dribbled past Busquets before putting a rather poor attempt on goal into the
side netting of Pinto’s goal. It was a wasted chance to go 2 goals clear of
their arch-rivals, as pressure to live up to his price tag continued to mount
on the young winger’s shoulders.
Bale was given another chance just a
minute later.
Although a much tougher shot, Bale’s
volley went just over the goal.
After Gareth Bale had a goal ruled
out, Barcelona quickly won a corner in the other half. The resulting corner
kick finally gave Barcelona the equalizer they needed. An unmarked Marc Bartra
headed a perfectly placed shot past Iker Casillas as Cules everywhere went
wild.
In the 85th-minute, Isco and Fabio
Coentrao combined deep in their own half before the latter was able to advance
into enough space to get the ball to an accelerating Gareth Bale.
Bale’s first touch knocked the ball
forward and led to one of his trademark sprints down the wing. Marc Bartra
tried to push the Welshman out of bounds, but it was futile.
The Spanish defender was left in the
dust, and could only watch helplessly as Bale threaded the winner through the
legs of the keeper.
The legend of Bale was launched in
style and that too against the bitter rivals – Barcelona at their prime.
Bale’s goal not only helped Real
Madrid clinch their 19th Copa del Rey title but also silenced his critics and
explained why Los Blancos paid £85m for his services.
After the departure of Ronaldo in 2018
to Juventus, Bale was expected to lead the attack, but he failed to live up to
the expectations. The emergence of new boys made it tougher for him to secure a
place in the Real Madrid set-up and obviously, he had injury issues.
The time has come to move on and he
would return to his old home within a few days.
But in Real Madrid, he would always
remain as one of the best players ever to wear the white shirt.
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