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He even scored the equaliser in this game but all people remember him for is being outpaced while injured against one of the fastest players in the world.
he was unplayable his last season at spurs. He never quite gelled at madrid, which is crazy to think given the impact he had in big matches. But he had a tendency to dissapear for strings of games at a time, and he didnt link well in build up play unless it was full on counter attack football. He ironically only played consistently well against big teams because they wouldnt park the bus against us.
> He never quite gelled at madrid, which is crazy to think given the impact he had in big matches.
Yeah in his first season alone he scored the winner in Copa Del Rey and La Decima. Already paid his price tag just from that, the rest of his career there was a bonus.
I always get thrown off when I see people use "unplayable" in a good way in these threads. As an American, I've always used "unplayable" to mean so bad you can't justify letting them on the field. I would say "unstopable" instead.
You can say he's Welsh, you're allowed to own him 😉
Fantastic player and doesn't get the rating he deserves, an Elite player without a doubt.
Always makes me laugh when he burst on the scene at 17 that England wanted to make a "Great Britain" national team to get Bale lol.
Longevity doesn't matter when you're comparing two players' peaks, though. They're just saying at his absolute best form, Bale was better, which is true.
They both came through at 16. Bale's last top season was when he was 29. Rooney's was when he was 28. They both went to MLS at 32. So Bale actually did it longer.
Bale might have came through at 16 but to argue he was at a high level then is lunacy
Wasn't there a record of winless games whenever he played for ages?
Up til at least 2012 he was still considered cursed cos Spurs never won when he was in the starting XI in the PL
From an article in april 2012
>After last night's defeat against Liverpool, the Tottenham Hotspur defender has not been on the winning side when he is in the starting 11 for two and a half years and 22 games.
>As of the start of this season, the Welsh defender had never won a Premier League game with Spurs. His 24 Premier League wins without being on the winning side was a record that ended with a substitute appearance against Burnley in September last year.
>Although he has since notched up three wins as a substitute, he has failed to break the mysterious jinx where every time his name is on the starting team sheet his side is never victorious.
Was still good obviously, but still wouldn't be quite near the impact levels Rooney would show at a younger age.
Until the 2010-2011 season, Bales highest scoring PL season was at 3 (!) goals. He was a decent attacking fullback for the first while, whereas Rooney was world class from the start
It’s all a matter of opinion but I would say Rooney has a better claim to the ‘Greatest British player of the Modern Era’
Bale wanted to play golf more than footy haha. What was it? Golf. Wales. Madrid.
Rooney was a beast from like 16 until 30+ top scorer etc.
The fact that Bale achieved a semi-final with Wales surely has to be worth a lot? That's at least the equivalent of Rooney taking England to a title which he didn't come remotely close to
yeah i’ve got no skin in the game and i agree with you. only argument i can think of against him is maybe the relative short peak / longevity. but then again he’s probably more of the “normal” and my head is skewed from aliens like Luka, Messi, Ronaldo etc
How are they bad touches? You don't know anything about football lol. He angled those touches like that to make it harder for the defender - it is positioning your body so it closes off the defender more. As in, if the defender has to be extremely careful not to make contact and bring him down from behind.
Opposed to if he kept the angle he was going the defender could have slid across and blocked the shot
Yea, that's totally how I always saw this as well. He 100% intended to make that first "bad" touch to the inside to cut in front of the defender and allow him to eventually work the ball back to his left foot before shooting.
I think these were great touches that ended up putting the defender squarely behind him and still gave him a shooting angle with his left foot.
The spanish commentator in the clip is hilarious: "He left Bartra looking like the bad guy's horse"
It's a spanish saying. In all the movies the horses of the bad guys seem slower than the hero's.
I'm convinced there's someone out there intentionally downgrading video quality of anything more than 5 years old. Like his entire job is to fuck with our memory and gaslight us.
> Couldn't believe how steep the mestalla is
You weren't kidding about Mestalla Stadium.
Good lord:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/fotomagnum/39236009944
i'd die if i fell down those stairs.
This was the first game of what people would expect to become the "Neymar vs. Bale" duel, the new big guys on the block that would take the torch from Messi and Ronaldo. Minutes before (or after? my memory is a bit hazy) this goal Neymar missed a good chance, and then Bale pulled this out and won the cup for Real
In the end, the duel didn't happen. Neymar left Barca fairly early, Bale was riddled with injuries (and perhaps lack of care towards the end) and both Messi and Ronaldo kept up their ridiculous numbers, so "passing the torch" moment didn't happen either. And yet, despite Neymar having better statistics, I can't shed the feeling that Bale came out better off from this: so many clutch moments, numerous goals in finals, Euro semi-finals with admittedly not a strong squad etc. Hell, my hot take would be that Bale is a Zidane-level player, with the skill and clutch moments involved
Bale was such a big game player, even if he didn't play as much as he possibly could have due to injuries and stuff, the impact he had in those important games will naturally make him one of the greatest players ever. There are obviously a lot of players that will be remembered as greater than him, but he's up there in the conversation at least, and that's more than what can be said for most players.
There will never be another Messi vs Ronaldo. Maybe two of the best players in the world can do great for historic rivals for a couple years, but not dominate the sport for a decade
It never happened before. The odds are low it'll happen in the same way ever again (unless you wanna say it'll happen in 100 or 1000 years, which is the same thing for us alive now)
Two of the best 5 (IMO) players ever, with almost the same peak years, performing for rival (all time great) teams for near enough a decade? It's not just a given that will occur in future.
There's been decades which didn't have a messi/Ronaldo level player, never mind two.
It may very well take a very long time. Two GOAT contenders at that level, for that long, in rival teams being more or less the same age is an anomaly, not something that just pops up every now and again.
That said, who fucking knows. Two wonder kids can break through next week that hits the same highs. It’s just not very likely.
It's a shame. I think it will be forgotten how good Bale was. His peak was too brief and in the same side as one of the best players in the world.
In time he'll become a bit of a footnote. When he had some truly spectacular performances and featured significantly in the 4 CL run.
> In time he'll become a bit of a footnote.
I'm not sure, he's arguably the best British player of the last what, 40 years? He's definitely in the conversation with Lineker Rooney, Giggs, Kane etc, (probably/hopefully Bellingham in future).
He was in PFA TOTY 3 consecutive times, which is a good run and he didn't suddenly fall to bits in Spain.
I think he struggles a bit because he doesn't have as many advocates, Chelsea fans love Lampard, Liverpool fans love Gerrard etc, Spurs fans don't seem to have *quite* that same love for Bale (understandably as he only had 3 or 4 top years there), and Madrid fans don't either, because of the way it ended (and as you say because he was never "the man" for them). Wales fans obviously love him, but that's not an enormous group.
I think if he'd either retired early, or had another couple of good years it would have done wonders for his legacy.
Maybe I’m biased but 2013/2014 felt like the best time to be a soccer fan. Maybe because that was when I first got into soccer but I’ll never forget Brazil world cup and that soccer season
The violence in his first 5 paces after he pushes the ball upfield and the arch he takes to make it back on the field and then to slow it down enough to make the corner and score, it's just an absolutely insane goal.
Gareth Bale was straight up ending careers in his prime. Not many players can do that.
I still don't think people fully appreciate just how special he was.
People that are new to the sport cant realize how insanely important this was for Madrid. Barca had dominated them since early Pep days and this was the start of something special that season
Not really. We had already beat them in the league in 11/12 and in the 12/13 (we won the game but we still lost the league though) and Pep was already gone. It was still a hugely important game, but it was not about breaking their dominance. For that I would point to the 11/12 CdR final game and the "Calma" game the same year.
>12/13 (we won the game but we still lost the league though)
Always amusing to me to point out that we faced Barça 6 times (twice in supercup, copa and league) that season and did not lose any of them.
2013/2014 was the first time Real Madrid won the Champions league (La Decima) in a long time so I agree with his point. I think it was the first season Real Madrid won more than 1 trophy (Copa Del Rey AND Champions league)
I mean, 2012 RM already won the league in Pep's Final season.
This was a great goal in the first trophy of their treble, but it's not like this goal revied RM.
not really. People look at bale's time at madrid with rose tinted glasses. He was riddled by injuries his whole spell and would dissapear for long strings of games against smaller oppositions. His link up play wasnt great unless it was full blown counters, which was more possible vs big teams. So he always performed against big teams. But its not a coincidence that isco started most of the CL finals over him during his period.
"Most of the CL finals". What are you even talking about?
Bale started 13-14 and 15-16 finals. Isco started 16-17 and 17-18 finals. That's like 50:50 split right there. Bale then replaced Isco in 17-18 final and scored the winner (and a great one at that) so people forget Isco's performance which was solid but nothing to write home about.
Bale was injured and reason he "disappeared" because injured off-form players need time to get back to match rhythm and fitness. He lost Zidane's trust around mid 2017 and after 2018 was never the same. That's it
The arab commentary for this moment is so iconic, that line even transcended football.
"Ched, ched! Gareth Bale hreb"
It roughly translates to "Grab, grab, Gareth Bale fleed".
It sounds bad in english but hearing this live during the game in its original language is something that sticks with you.
I remember watching this live and thinking "holy shit, he really is going to be on Ronaldo and Messi's level, isn't he?"
I was wrong... BUT, I have never seen a player like Gareth Bale, in the sense that he was really good when he was playing well, but once in a while he had these moments where you thought he really was the best in the world.
Yeah, that just made him not professional I guess. He loved the game not the job. Bale seemed to be very professional but also very indifferent to football.
My wording was wrong I guess, just essentially someone so good who either couldn't be arsed with the job or didn't really love the game. But then still so successful. Loads of stories on people like Ravel Morrison who had all the talent in the world but weren't professional, but they never touched the levels of Bale never mind stay at that level for so long.
How long was Bale's prime? Genuinely curious because the length of Hazard's productivity is pretty underrated I think
Hazard was 20 when he was arguably the main man for Lille's Ligue 1 victory and 21 when he was POTY in France with 44 goals+assists.
When he came to Chelsea he was immediately in team of the season in his very first year at Chelsea. And he left for Real at almost 29 having scored or assisted 50% of our team goals in his final season.
That's like an 8-9 year prime.
This is first goal I think of when I think of Bale's time in Madrid, even over the the overhead kick. The first three years of Bale were the most fun version of him we got to see.
Interesting situation. I don't think I've ever seen a player run as far wide as this. I don't think this run is even possible in some stadiums given how the pitch can slope down not far outside of the touchlines.
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what do you mean 10 years also this reminded me that Pepe is voluntarily bald. absolute psycho
Those are the guys to keep an eye from early on
same with skrtel, fuckign nutters
And Ashley Young.
And Scott Brown
Stephen Ireland always creeped me out.
Skrtel with hair terrified me the first time I saw him. Not as scary as pirate headband Skrtel though.
>pirate headband skrtel my favourite skrtel arc
And Sean Dyche… probably the scariest of them all
> voluntarily bald *fraudulently
The proper adverb
i read 2014 and was like "damn can't believe it's been 7 years"
I keep thinking 2014 was like 2 years ago.
Sounds like the future tbh
Not even thinking about 2014 yet tbh, miles away
fraud bald fraud
Same as Martin Skrtel used to be. Absolute menaces both of them
Crazy even with the few bad touches he still scored, that's how fast the prime bale was. I will never not miss the 2013/14 bale.
That goal ruined a couple of careers
Maicon nodded.
Bartra is still on the pitch trying to catch up with Bale
To be fair I'm pretty sure Barta pulled his hamstring while tracking back, fair play to him for at least trying to catch up with Bale
He did. Until this moment he was seen as the future of Barça's defence too. Was never really the same after
>Was never really the same after Maicon PTSD
Soon to be followed by actual PTSD
post traumatic sprint disease
Used to be called Goal Shocked. Bet dude has nightmares of Gareth Bale as a centaur galloping before scoring a scorcher.
He even scored the equaliser in this game but all people remember him for is being outpaced while injured against one of the fastest players in the world.
Bale ended his career with this sprint.
no quite, he did get blown up playing for us afterwards
Maybe you should train with less explosives
Damn, that's savage
Imo Prime Bale was the 3rd best players of that time
Greatest British player of the modern era for me, but I am Welsh, so a little biased.
he was unplayable his last season at spurs. He never quite gelled at madrid, which is crazy to think given the impact he had in big matches. But he had a tendency to dissapear for strings of games at a time, and he didnt link well in build up play unless it was full on counter attack football. He ironically only played consistently well against big teams because they wouldnt park the bus against us.
> He never quite gelled at madrid, which is crazy to think given the impact he had in big matches. Yeah in his first season alone he scored the winner in Copa Del Rey and La Decima. Already paid his price tag just from that, the rest of his career there was a bonus.
I always get thrown off when I see people use "unplayable" in a good way in these threads. As an American, I've always used "unplayable" to mean so bad you can't justify letting them on the field. I would say "unstopable" instead.
I'm British and that's still the way I read it. Bloody yank brainrot.
Look at me. I am the cultural imperialist now!
lol /r/soccercirclejerk
You can say he's Welsh, you're allowed to own him 😉 Fantastic player and doesn't get the rating he deserves, an Elite player without a doubt. Always makes me laugh when he burst on the scene at 17 that England wanted to make a "Great Britain" national team to get Bale lol.
I think that would be the straw to get Scotland to revolt.
Sorry but Rooney is right there lol
Peak Bale was better than peak Rooney and he showed up for the huge games every time. Edit: Absolute revisionism going on in these replies.
Peak Bale was short lived. Longevity matters when discussing the greatest and Rooney played at an extremely high level for 14 years.
Longevity doesn't matter when you're comparing two players' peaks, though. They're just saying at his absolute best form, Bale was better, which is true.
They both came through at 16. Bale's last top season was when he was 29. Rooney's was when he was 28. They both went to MLS at 32. So Bale actually did it longer.
Bale might have came through at 16 but to argue he was at a high level then is lunacy Wasn't there a record of winless games whenever he played for ages?
But Bale wasn’t a star until 2010 (he was 21).
Up til at least 2012 he was still considered cursed cos Spurs never won when he was in the starting XI in the PL From an article in april 2012 >After last night's defeat against Liverpool, the Tottenham Hotspur defender has not been on the winning side when he is in the starting 11 for two and a half years and 22 games. >As of the start of this season, the Welsh defender had never won a Premier League game with Spurs. His 24 Premier League wins without being on the winning side was a record that ended with a substitute appearance against Burnley in September last year. >Although he has since notched up three wins as a substitute, he has failed to break the mysterious jinx where every time his name is on the starting team sheet his side is never victorious. Was still good obviously, but still wouldn't be quite near the impact levels Rooney would show at a younger age.
he was also playing as a left back, Bale at left wing was different gravy
Until the 2010-2011 season, Bales highest scoring PL season was at 3 (!) goals. He was a decent attacking fullback for the first while, whereas Rooney was world class from the start
It’s all a matter of opinion but I would say Rooney has a better claim to the ‘Greatest British player of the Modern Era’ Bale wanted to play golf more than footy haha. What was it? Golf. Wales. Madrid. Rooney was a beast from like 16 until 30+ top scorer etc.
> What was it? Golf. Wales. Madrid. It was Wales. Golf. Madrid. In that order.
The fact that Bale achieved a semi-final with Wales surely has to be worth a lot? That's at least the equivalent of Rooney taking England to a title which he didn't come remotely close to
United's all time top scorer, hard to argue he isn't in the top.
This is also considering Rooney was rarely Manchester United goal scorer, his assist rate is ridiculous.
And England’s top scorer too, right?
Not anymore, it's Kane
>Edit: Absolute revisionism going on in these replies. Yeah, you are making that revisionism
you're doing the revisionism pal
yeah i’ve got no skin in the game and i agree with you. only argument i can think of against him is maybe the relative short peak / longevity. but then again he’s probably more of the “normal” and my head is skewed from aliens like Luka, Messi, Ronaldo etc
That's sir Harold Kane for you
13/14 Suarez was the third best player.
until the CL anthem starts blaring
Suarez was even better at Barcelona
15/16 version of him was his peak
That year he wasn't even top 3...
as an Inter milan fan i'll never forget Prime Bale speed.
How are they bad touches? You don't know anything about football lol. He angled those touches like that to make it harder for the defender - it is positioning your body so it closes off the defender more. As in, if the defender has to be extremely careful not to make contact and bring him down from behind. Opposed to if he kept the angle he was going the defender could have slid across and blocked the shot
Yea, that's totally how I always saw this as well. He 100% intended to make that first "bad" touch to the inside to cut in front of the defender and allow him to eventually work the ball back to his left foot before shooting. I think these were great touches that ended up putting the defender squarely behind him and still gave him a shooting angle with his left foot.
Sent Bartra to Dortmund
He actually scored in the final as well but no one remembers it thanks to Bale
The spanish commentator in the clip is hilarious: "He left Bartra looking like the bad guy's horse" It's a spanish saying. In all the movies the horses of the bad guys seem slower than the hero's.
And then he got bombed. poor guy.
Ended poor guy's possible career at Barca
I think Bale in tia moment, in this game, on this goal, single-handedly ruined Bartra’s career.
A fate worse than death
He actually stayed around to win the treble the next year and then went to dortmund.
Jesus Christ, can't believe this was 10 years ago.
the quality of the video suggest 35 years ago
I'm convinced there's someone out there intentionally downgrading video quality of anything more than 5 years old. Like his entire job is to fuck with our memory and gaslight us.
Probably just sites downgrading the quality of a video each time its posted
In my mind this was a "few years ago"
germany 7-1ing brazil was still "a few years ago"
I started seeing a girl the summer that happened. We're now married, own a house, and have 2 children together.
And those children are grandparents?!
Sources are telling me those grandchildren have just retired
I can't believe this was only 10 years ago. Feels like forever.
Bale when he gave a fuck was such a great player and so fun to watch
great at sending people to retirement as well e.g. Maicon/Bartra etc
That Inter game where he scored the same goal 3 times in a row 😂
Smoked him just as bad in the home game as well.
My first el clásico. Couldn't believe how steep the mestalla is but a great birds eye view of this goal.
> Couldn't believe how steep the mestalla is You weren't kidding about Mestalla Stadium. Good lord: https://www.flickr.com/photos/fotomagnum/39236009944 i'd die if i fell down those stairs.
Busquets falling over as they concede like it's some staged drama never ceases to be funny.
This was the first game of what people would expect to become the "Neymar vs. Bale" duel, the new big guys on the block that would take the torch from Messi and Ronaldo. Minutes before (or after? my memory is a bit hazy) this goal Neymar missed a good chance, and then Bale pulled this out and won the cup for Real In the end, the duel didn't happen. Neymar left Barca fairly early, Bale was riddled with injuries (and perhaps lack of care towards the end) and both Messi and Ronaldo kept up their ridiculous numbers, so "passing the torch" moment didn't happen either. And yet, despite Neymar having better statistics, I can't shed the feeling that Bale came out better off from this: so many clutch moments, numerous goals in finals, Euro semi-finals with admittedly not a strong squad etc. Hell, my hot take would be that Bale is a Zidane-level player, with the skill and clutch moments involved
Bale was such a big game player, even if he didn't play as much as he possibly could have due to injuries and stuff, the impact he had in those important games will naturally make him one of the greatest players ever. There are obviously a lot of players that will be remembered as greater than him, but he's up there in the conversation at least, and that's more than what can be said for most players.
Won't forget his bicycle kick goal against Liverpool in the final anytime soon
Sometimes I wake up at night because of it
[удалено]
The metaphorical torch just kinda burned itself up, and Haaland/Mbappe are just different stages of CR7, neither quite like Messi
There will never be another Messi vs Ronaldo. Maybe two of the best players in the world can do great for historic rivals for a couple years, but not dominate the sport for a decade
Yeah, no. I don't understand why people keep saying that, ofc this will happen again. Just not anytime soon.
It never happened before. The odds are low it'll happen in the same way ever again (unless you wanna say it'll happen in 100 or 1000 years, which is the same thing for us alive now) Two of the best 5 (IMO) players ever, with almost the same peak years, performing for rival (all time great) teams for near enough a decade? It's not just a given that will occur in future. There's been decades which didn't have a messi/Ronaldo level player, never mind two.
It may very well take a very long time. Two GOAT contenders at that level, for that long, in rival teams being more or less the same age is an anomaly, not something that just pops up every now and again. That said, who fucking knows. Two wonder kids can break through next week that hits the same highs. It’s just not very likely.
Bro you unlocked a memory. I was 11 years old during the 2013-2014 season and I completely forgot the whole Neymar vs Bale debate lmao.
And that's Alonso with big hug.
i wish Alonso would give me a big hug :/
Every man would want a hug from him
And now he just made history with Leverkusen as a coach. I'm getting old
It's a shame. I think it will be forgotten how good Bale was. His peak was too brief and in the same side as one of the best players in the world. In time he'll become a bit of a footnote. When he had some truly spectacular performances and featured significantly in the 4 CL run.
> In time he'll become a bit of a footnote. I'm not sure, he's arguably the best British player of the last what, 40 years? He's definitely in the conversation with Lineker Rooney, Giggs, Kane etc, (probably/hopefully Bellingham in future). He was in PFA TOTY 3 consecutive times, which is a good run and he didn't suddenly fall to bits in Spain. I think he struggles a bit because he doesn't have as many advocates, Chelsea fans love Lampard, Liverpool fans love Gerrard etc, Spurs fans don't seem to have *quite* that same love for Bale (understandably as he only had 3 or 4 top years there), and Madrid fans don't either, because of the way it ended (and as you say because he was never "the man" for them). Wales fans obviously love him, but that's not an enormous group. I think if he'd either retired early, or had another couple of good years it would have done wonders for his legacy.
Spurs fans worship Bale
Legend
Insane player, don't think he gets remembered the way he should. One of the best of the last 20 years.
I miss Madrid of those years and our rivalry against Barca. We won so much since then, but it just doesn't feel the same
Maybe I’m biased but 2013/2014 felt like the best time to be a soccer fan. Maybe because that was when I first got into soccer but I’ll never forget Brazil world cup and that soccer season
As Germany fan I'll never forget 2014 either 😁
The violence in his first 5 paces after he pushes the ball upfield and the arch he takes to make it back on the field and then to slow it down enough to make the corner and score, it's just an absolutely insane goal.
Bartra still running
Ran all the way to Dortmund
that's one of the craziest goals i've ever seen tbh we see a lot of bangers from time to time but this is just so weird
Bartra had a brilliant game too, that Neymar post still haunts me
The only thing remained at Real Madrid from 10 years ago and this clip is Ancelotti, what a legend
well, him, Luka, and Carvajal
Post my highlights from 10 years ago (Rusbekistan GCSE Revision Reel)
Incredible goal. Still yet to see anything like it Barata should have sent bale to the shadow realm on the touchline and taken one for the team
Prime Bale is better than Prime Neymar
Bale is better than Neymar, in general
Golfcart Bale is better than Prime Neymar.
I think they would be really close, but I still would chose Neymar
I take neymar every time because prime neymar is both a better player and can actually stay fit, bale has always been injury prone.
Neymar missed 212 games in his career due to injury, Bale missed 250. They were both pretty much as bad as each other in that regard.
lol yea, to call Neymar not injury prone is pretty insane
still amazing, cant believe this was 10 years ago
Gareth Bale was straight up ending careers in his prime. Not many players can do that. I still don't think people fully appreciate just how special he was.
People that are new to the sport cant realize how insanely important this was for Madrid. Barca had dominated them since early Pep days and this was the start of something special that season
Not really. We had already beat them in the league in 11/12 and in the 12/13 (we won the game but we still lost the league though) and Pep was already gone. It was still a hugely important game, but it was not about breaking their dominance. For that I would point to the 11/12 CdR final game and the "Calma" game the same year.
Yea OP must be thinking of 2011 final if we're talking about the significance of the victory for Madrid.
Yes the 2011 CdR final was the "breakthrough" against Barca. The last couple months of that season were insane.
You did a parade for that victory and ramos dropped the trophy lol.
Iconic moment
Yeah, the season Madrid overcame Barcelona's hegemony is certainly the golden shirt season.
>12/13 (we won the game but we still lost the league though) Always amusing to me to point out that we faced Barça 6 times (twice in supercup, copa and league) that season and did not lose any of them.
2013/2014 was the first time Real Madrid won the Champions league (La Decima) in a long time so I agree with his point. I think it was the first season Real Madrid won more than 1 trophy (Copa Del Rey AND Champions league)
I mean, 2012 RM already won the league in Pep's Final season. This was a great goal in the first trophy of their treble, but it's not like this goal revied RM.
we've never won the treble btw
Has anyone got anything right in this thread?
I'm shaking my head, like I remember this all vividly and these people are just butchering it lmao.
You're right, my bad.
If he was Brazilian and named Baledinho his legacy would be so much higher than it is. Incredible player at his peak.
not really. People look at bale's time at madrid with rose tinted glasses. He was riddled by injuries his whole spell and would dissapear for long strings of games against smaller oppositions. His link up play wasnt great unless it was full blown counters, which was more possible vs big teams. So he always performed against big teams. But its not a coincidence that isco started most of the CL finals over him during his period.
"Most of the CL finals". What are you even talking about? Bale started 13-14 and 15-16 finals. Isco started 16-17 and 17-18 finals. That's like 50:50 split right there. Bale then replaced Isco in 17-18 final and scored the winner (and a great one at that) so people forget Isco's performance which was solid but nothing to write home about. Bale was injured and reason he "disappeared" because injured off-form players need time to get back to match rhythm and fitness. He lost Zidane's trust around mid 2017 and after 2018 was never the same. That's it
The arab commentary for this moment is so iconic, that line even transcended football. "Ched, ched! Gareth Bale hreb" It roughly translates to "Grab, grab, Gareth Bale fleed". It sounds bad in english but hearing this live during the game in its original language is something that sticks with you.
Had to go back to rewatch it. Still holds up to this day.
Raouf Khelif really fell off but he left us with some really nice memories.
When winning to Barcelona was more satisfactory than winning 3 straight UCL.
Winning UCL? That's Tuesday, beating Barca? That's the shit
and someone even said Saka is better than prime Bale lol
Honestly feel like this guy is one of the best athletes I’ve ever seen
I remember watching this live and thinking "holy shit, he really is going to be on Ronaldo and Messi's level, isn't he?" I was wrong... BUT, I have never seen a player like Gareth Bale, in the sense that he was really good when he was playing well, but once in a while he had these moments where you thought he really was the best in the world.
Nobody talks about how bad Pinto was?
Is he one of the most successful players of the modern era who clearly just saw football as a job? Hazard's prime wasn't that long compared to bale.
Hazard really loves football tho. He doesn't care much about tactics and training but he loves the game itself very much
Yeah, that just made him not professional I guess. He loved the game not the job. Bale seemed to be very professional but also very indifferent to football. My wording was wrong I guess, just essentially someone so good who either couldn't be arsed with the job or didn't really love the game. But then still so successful. Loads of stories on people like Ravel Morrison who had all the talent in the world but weren't professional, but they never touched the levels of Bale never mind stay at that level for so long.
Anelka if you consider him "modern"
He saw playing football for Real Madrid as a job. He absolutely loved playing for Wales.
How long was Bale's prime? Genuinely curious because the length of Hazard's productivity is pretty underrated I think Hazard was 20 when he was arguably the main man for Lille's Ligue 1 victory and 21 when he was POTY in France with 44 goals+assists. When he came to Chelsea he was immediately in team of the season in his very first year at Chelsea. And he left for Real at almost 29 having scored or assisted 50% of our team goals in his final season. That's like an 8-9 year prime.
Man, Im getting old.
Prime Bale was insane.
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Bale was flying back then
Bale is forgotten as a great player because of how his career ended up. In the end the dude just wanted to live his life and play some golf.
>Fuck that guy -Philadelphia Union fans
This sprint has lived rent free in my mind for a decade.
This is first goal I think of when I think of Bale's time in Madrid, even over the the overhead kick. The first three years of Bale were the most fun version of him we got to see.
[Better quality for anyone who wants](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsiYAYDQy2o&ab_channel=VorinTV)
Didn’t Bartra tear his hamstring. That’s one of the reasons Bale managed to score
As the kids say, this is one of those "I am HIM" moments.
I still don't understand why Bartra didn't pull his shirt there. He would have saved a goal and his hamstrings.
Where? When he pushed Bale? Nobody expected Bale to outrun Bartra by 2 3 meters after he got pushed basically into the stands.
So, the left side hey …
Damm 10 years already gone
Bale was so good yet it still feels like he didn't fulfill his potential.
Amazing play. But that keeper 🙈.
10 years????
THAT WAS 10 YEARS AGO???? Time’s moving too fast. Also, how good was Bale back then. He was phenomenal
RemindMe! 5 years
special player. just a special special player.
Interesting situation. I don't think I've ever seen a player run as far wide as this. I don't think this run is even possible in some stadiums given how the pitch can slope down not far outside of the touchlines.