Are the Spurs Gareth Bale’s last chance to become a soccer legend?
Alejandro Panfil @AlePanfil
It’s very difficult to understand why Gareth Bale still hasn’t become one of the best players on the planet, or at least the happiest, after his seven years in Real Madrid, the biggest club in the world. To try for an answer on the spur of the moment, we need to take into consideration that most times, even the best players need to play for the team and environment that best suites them to shine: it happened in the past when Diego Maradona left Barcelona to start again in Napoli; it happened more recently when Mohamed Salah arrived in Liverpool after his stays in Basel, Chelsea, Fiorentina and Roma and this might be the case of Bale’s return to Tottenham.
It is unbelievable that a player with such quality has reached this extreme point in his relationship with the club that paid for him 100 million Euros in 2013. Before that, no one could imagine this outcome, especially because his career had been on the rise since he became a youth player of Southampton where he took his first steps at 9 years old and made his debut in the main team at 16 years and 275 days, becoming the second youngest to do so in the club.
He wore the jersey of The Saints during only two seasons: in the first one, he played 2 matches and didn’t score, but in the following (2006-2007) he made 43 appearances and 5 goals. Soon he signed for an England giant, Tottenham Hotspur, where he wrote his name among the most famous European players, with 203 games and 55 goals until he knocked the doors of the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium.
His adventure in Madrid had a very promising start with Carlo Ancelotti as a coach in the season 2013-2014, winning the Copa del Rey and the historic 10th Champions League for the club. He even scored a goal in the Lisbon final in the 4-1 against Atlético de Madrid. He completed that first season with excellent stats: 44 games and 22 goals. In the following year, Bale nearly repeated those same numbers, with 48 games and 17 goals, but after Carleto was sacked to bring Rafa Benitez, who finally had a short stay in Real Madrid, things became weird: the striker soon had some disagreements with the new coach Zinedine Zidane due to controversial injury recovery periods, certain lack of compromise and a sour relationship with his teammates and the fans. Nevertheless, the player participated in all the victories of the club, including the following three consecutive Champions League trophies that Real Madrid won against Atlético de Madrid, Juventus and Liverpool. Regardless, he became less and less important to the coach: 31 games/19 goals in 2015-2016 and 27 games/9 goals in the 2016-2017 season.
After season 2017-2018, when he played 39 games and scored 21 goals, Cristiano Ronaldo left the club to sign for Juventus and Bale had the chance to become the main franchise player. However, things did not go well for his following coaches, Julen Lopetegui and Santiago Solari and, finally, Zidane returned to the bench. In July 2019, Zizou declared openly that Bale wasn’t on his plans. “He wasn't called up because the club is dealing with his transfer elsewhere and that's why he didn't play. We'll see what happens with him over the next few days", said the Real Madrid coach with some annoyance. "I'm not going to start talking about that; we'll see. If it's all resolved tomorrow, then that would be even better”, added the French icon during the pre-season tour in the US.
While he was unhappy in Madrid, with his national team it was a complete different picture. He’s left a mark for his country having played 70 games, scoring 36 goals and making 19 assists. His influence on the team was fantastic and led them to reach the historic semifinals in the Euro 2016. To illustrate his happiness with The Dragons, he and his teammates celebrated their qualification to the Euro 2020 with a controversial message in a Wales flag: “Wales. Golf. Madrid. In that order”. "It's one of those things, I kind of knew maybe it would cause controversy, but I was celebrating with my fans, my friends and the other players, but the Welsh flag was there”, he explained after the incident during an interview. His relationship with anything related to Real Madrid was already broken forever.
For a player who’s won with the Merengues 2 Spanish Leagues, 1 Copa del Rey, 1 Spain Supercup, 4 Champions Leagues, 2 UEFA Super Cups and 3 World Cup Clubs and who’s played 251 games and scored 105 goals, the aftermaths of his last season is at the very least, strange: Bale wasn’t even talking to the coach and he used to watch the games from the grandstand - he played only 20 games and scored 3 goals in 2019-2020. Why would a player like him be benched and lose value without a proper fight for his right to stardom? This question became even more intriguing when it was known that there were other teams, including Manchester United, that wanted to sign him.
We have finally unraveled the mystery. At 31 years old, Bale has decided to go back to the Spurs. José Mourinho, its coach, wanted to sign him when he was the coach of United a couple of years ago, and now needs to put his current team back on track. In order to do so, he needs to count on Gareth Bale, a player who has shown potential to become a serious star. For Bale, it is probably his last chance to find his perfect fit in a team where he will be surrounded by other great players like Harry Kane, Dele Alli, Heung-min Son and Giovani Lo Celso.
Even though Bale had left London when old White Hart Lane was still standing, the new Tottenham Spurs Stadium awaits him with open arms. In the end, we’ll have to wait and see if he can become again that promising 100-Million-Euros player he used to be or, at least, find happiness in the noble pursuit of soccer glory.
PH: @Spursofficial