“How do I articulate the impact it has had on my life?” Gareth Bale 09/01/2023.
How do I? How do we? Where to begin?
The greatest I have ever seen. The greatest we may ever see. A superstar, a global icon, an athlete of unrivaled talent, who more than anything else, the money and glamour and fame and trophies, just wanted to do what we wanted to do. To play for Wales. With his mates.
The first time I saw him in the flesh was during one of Welsh football’s low points (it is hard to choose its lowest). Hammered 5-1 by Slovakia in the Millennium Stadium. Humiliated at home. And yet there was one brief moment of magic from a 17-year-old scoring his first international goal. A beautiful, floated free-kick. Things were about to get better. But we had no idea. We couldn’t have imagined it in our wildest dreams.
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I remember sitting in meaningless friendlies and soul-crushing qualifiers thereafter. Just watching him for an hour and half each time. Dancing around the opposition with such ease, gliding across the grass with lightning speed. Humiliating defenders. Operating on a completely different level to anyone else on the pitch. The little flicks, the drop of the shoulder. Like a cat playing with a mouse. Untouchable.
He scored my favourite goal against Scotland in October 2012, a late winner from outside the box. A goal only Gareth Bale could score. He dragged a team to victory on his own that night. And saved Chris Coleman’s job. Imagine if he hadn’t. But he always delivered for Wales.
Wherever he picked up the ball 30 or 40 yards from goal you’d be on your feet, your heart racing, your knuckles white, clinching the collar of the stranger next to you.
In 2014 he did it again against Andorra. The first game in a qualification campaign which would end in a European championship semi-final two years later.
Another must-win game. Another free-kick. Another late winner.
In Israel we played total football inspired by our talisman. In Cardiff he dispatched a world-class Belgium side.
He always delivered for Wales.
At Euro 2016 he took us to dreamland with the dragon on his chest. Oh Bordeaux. Oh Toulouse. Oh Gareth. Ein Gareth. He called us the Red Wall and we loved him for it.
His powers would begin to fade with age, maybe he was mortal after all, but there were still sprinkles of gold dust.
Decisive goals would take us to another tournament in the midst of a pandemic.
And then, in his final year, having barely played any football and looking a shadow of his former self, he delivered for Wales.
Two goals against Austria that belonged in his prime. Then a gloriously ugly winner against Ukraine sent us to the World Cup. The final piece of the jigsaw. The final level unlocked.
And while that last hurrah was ultimately one of disappointment at least we saw him score at the greatest tournament of all. A fitting stage to deliver one last time for Wales.
Gareth Bale was the superstar in a golden generation of Welsh footballers, the likes of which we may never see again.
He wowed us so often it became normal. He brought us more joy in 16 years than Welsh football had seen in its other 130 put together.
He elevated our nation on the world stage. He literally put us on the map.
We will tell our children and our grandchildren about the things we saw him do. The way he made us feel.
A footballing god.
It doesn’t matter if he really had a bad back, or if it really was Wales, Golf, Madrid. It is all part of the legend now.
Our greatest ever. In any sport.
Not bad for a kid from Whitchurch, who just wanted to play football for Wales. With his mates.
Viva Gareth Bale.
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