#Basel #Madrid #Dungeon #Welsh #Dragons
In almost complete anonymity, Gareth Bale has just left Real Madrid, nine years after his arrival. In the Spanish capital, the Welshman has never left anyone indifferent, alternating high-flying performances in his debut with a flagrant lack of involvement in recent years. Logic at last for the former Tottenham player who, after having marked the history of Real, seems determined to place his Wales on the football map by sending him to the next World Cup this Sunday.
Nine years summed up in a twenty-line press release accompanied by a video that does not exceed thirty minutes and covers its great moments. This is how Real Madrid greeted the departure of Gareth Bale this week.
THANK YOU, @GARETHBALE11. pic.twitter.com/O042yAtwL3
-Real Madrid FC? (@realmadridfra) June 1, 2022
Landed with great fanfare in 2013, the Welshman, at the end of his contract with the You meringues, leaves Spain in the most total indifference. Far from the tribute he would have deserved, but probably also because he has long put the interests of the Real before those of her homeland.
The BBC on the air
When he landed in the Spanish capital on 1Ahem September 2013, after long weeks of negotiations, Gareth Bale did not take long to put the Madrid fans in his pocket: “I know many players who talk about their desire to join the club they dreamed of as a child, but I can honestly say, my dream is coming true. » In addition to these few words thrown when he signed, the Welshman makes his talent speak on the pitches of Spain and Europe together with his two friends from the BBC: Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema. While the Portuguese occupied the stands, Bale left his first mark in the history of Real in the Copa del Rey final, just eight months after his arrival. In an action that remained in everyone’s mind, and that should still haunt Marc Bartra’s nights, the Madrid side deposited the Barça defender, after having visited the Catalans’ technical area, allowing his team to equalize a few . minutes of the term (a pawn of Ángel Di María will then offer the title to Madrid in extra time).
At the end of this match, Paul Clement, Carlo Ancelotti’s assistant at the time, spoke of the Welshman as a “world class player” . Compliments to which the interested party himself is responsible for providing a little more depth a month later. Facing Atlético in the Champions League final, Real managed to equalize miraculously in injury time before Bale made it 2-1 after extra time, launching Real towards the famous tenth he waited for twelve years. After these idyllic beginnings, the Welshman is then more discreet, due to injuries that promptly take him off the pitch. He will have to wait until 2018 for him to come out of his box again. And how. He remained rather in the shadows during the last two C1s won by the White House, including one on his home turf, in Cardiff, Bale makes things clear against Liverpool. Author of a decisive brace, including a sublime snip, the former Tottenham player delivered the You meringues at the top of Europe for the third consecutive year.
the land of basel
Only here, after these moments of glory, and after lighting up Euro 2016 with his team, now Bale wants to go further with his people. A wish assumed in 2019: “It is clear that I want to play with Wales more than with Madrid. I have known most of my classmates since I was 17 years old. It’s like playing with friends on a Sunday in the park. It is normal. Here I speak my own language and I feel more comfortable. But that doesn’t change what I do on the field. I always give 100% on the pitch wherever I am, that’s what I always try to do. » Settled in Spain for more than five years, the Welshman no longer hides his discomfort and even goes further a few weeks later. By proudly posing next to a flag on which he is inscribed “Wales. Golf. Madrid. In that order” . Anyone who speaks Spanish like a British cow doesn’t help her personal situation, which deteriorates week by week.
Regularly injured, above all he is not sufficiently integrated into the group. It is enough to see the farewells to which Marcelo and Isco were entitled, led in triumph by their teammates, to realize this. The Welshman thus completes his ninth season at Real seeing his teammates conquer a new C1 from the bench. He doesn’t care, as he can now dedicate himself fully to Wales after having engraved his name forever in the stone on the side of the Real. At 32 years old, he will try to guide the Dragons to a second participation in a World Cup, after the one in 1958, against Ukraine this Sunday. And right now, probably nothing, not even his fifth Champions League win last Saturday, would make him happier.
By Florian Porta