ON WEDNESDAY, still glowing from a magical night in the land of his fathers, the world’s most expensive footballer boarded a plane back to Madrid. Gareth Bale’s luggage was bursting at the zips. “My bag is always full,” he grinned. “Always full of tastes of home.
“Those are the little things that you miss when you’re away. Teabags and British chocolate, that kind of stuff. I do my best to try and stock up.”
Bale is the Normal One of playing superstars and though more settled than ever in Spain, thanks to his improving Spanish, he still pines for the odd humble foodstuff: Dairy Milk, PG Tips, top the list.
On Tuesday, at the Millennium stadium, he led Wales’ celebrations at qualifying for Euro 2016, and returning to Cardiff always lets Bale top up on more than just confectionary. It reaffirms his Welshness, which he feels has been a pillar throughout the tests of playing for Real Madrid.
At an ordinary club, Bale would simply be able to bask in the contribution he has made since his transfer from Tottenham Hotspur in 2013. But this is Madrid. Bale’s goals and surging form late in his debut season were key to winning the Champions League and the Copa Del Rey; he starred in Super Cup and Club World Cup victories last season and has begun this one with two goals and a clutch of assists.
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But this is Madrid. In March, he endured a tough period with supporters, and a few voices in the Spanish press seem critical, whatever he achieves. Yet, when the handkerchiefs are waving and the columnists are raging, Bale just gets on with it. “I suppose it’s a compliment in a way,” he says. “When you’re at the top of your game, you’re expected to play well all the time.
“It’s part and parcel of where I am at the moment. I understand the pressures and I understand the expectations, and focus myself to try and live up to them. Obviously, it’s not all the time that you can. People have blips and it’s how you come out of them and respond.
“I feel I’ve done that in the past year. It’s from tough times that you learn more. It forges your character and makes you a better person all round.”
The way he sticks at it in Spain, and comes out producing — well, that’s where his Welshness comes in. “We’re always seen as underdogs,” says Bale. “We always have to fight to get where we want. In qualifying [for Euro 2016] too. Nobody expected that and we have proved them all wrong.”
Bale is a smiling, soft-spoken sort, but don’t underestimate quiet steel. “Literally since I was young, from when I was a schoolboy coming through, I had to fight,” he says. “I had a difficult time at Southampton getting a scholarship because of growth spurts. I’ve always had that kind of, I don’t know if it’s pressure, but that [sense of] having to prove things to people. I’m not saying that some players have it handed to them on a plate, but there are easier routes than others and I’ve always had to work and prove myself. It’s the same now. I suppose that you always get those doubters and the best feeling is proving them wrong.
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“I had to prove myself to get my scholarship and then I had to prove myself to get into Southampton’s first team, and then again at Spurs after my move. It’s always the same. At Madrid, you have to keep proving yourself, even when you don’t think you should have to. You have to keep battling on.”
Determination was bred not only by his homeland, but by his home environment. Bale jokes about getting lucky at school — “I got good questions and made the right guesses” — but he was the sports-mad kid who surprised teachers by plugging away and surpassing expectations by passing six GCSEs.
His family “have been the rock behind everything. They really instilled that kind of fighting spirit in me and it will live with me forever.” Did they ever let him give up on anything? “No chance,” he says, laughing. “I’d get a clip round the ear.”
We met on Wednesday at Sully Sports FC beside the Bristol Channel, where he delivered the 100,000th kit ordered as part of the McDonald’s Kit Scheme, which is backed by the Football Association. The children, under-13 boys and girls, didn’t know he was coming and yelled “Bale!” uproariously, making heart signs for the cameras.
They reflected a mood across Welsh football that he has done much to inspire by scoring seven times to get Wales to their first tournament since 1958, finishing a qualifying group only two points behind Belgium, who will become the world’s top-ranked team next month “We want to go to France and not just make up the numbers. We really want to try to get out of the group stages and take it step by step and, you never know, Greece have won the tournament. Denmark have won it. You never say never,” says Bale.
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“We know it will be a very difficult task to win the Euros but why not go with a positive attitude and really try to do well? I don’t think that anyone will want to draw us. The team spirit we’ve got is nothing like anyone’s seen before.
“Qualifying is massively important, but we hope that this is just the start of something big.”
At club level, he says he “wouldn’t mind” winning another Champions League. “The Millennium [stadium] 2017 [when the final is being staged in Cardiff], that’s something to aim at,” he says, grinning.
The opportunity might just come sooner. Paris Saint- Germain, away, will be an examination, but Bale believes that Real Madrid are stronger this season thanks to Rafa Benitez, their new manager. “He’s already very good for the team,” says Bale. “He’s got us more organised and we’re in a better place to really kick on. We’ve got a more solid defence and we’re scoring goals freely.”
On a personal level, the ambition — quietly projected yet strong — is to be the world’s best player.
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“That’s the plan,” says Bale shyly. “There’s no reason why not. Stranger things have happened.”
The team will always come first, he adds, but he will keep striving to get there. That attitude, that bit of Welshness, has done him OK so far.
•Gareth Bale, the Wales footballing superstar, surprised Sully Sports FC U13s to deliver the 100,000th free kit supplied by the McDonald’s Accredited Club scheme. For further information and to win kit for your club, visit www. mcdonalds.co.uk/kitscheme