Gareth Bale and his Wales teammates celebrated their historic World Cup qualification at his own bar in Cardiff.
Rob Page's side reached their first finals since 1958 on Sunday, securing a narrow 1-0 win at home to Ukraine in an emotional play-off match. Bale's deflected free-kick made difference as Wales ended an agonising 64-year wait to reach Qatar, where they will face England, Iran and the United States in November.
As their nation partied hard into the early hours of Monday morning, the heroes of 2022 joined in the celebrations at the Elevens Bar in the Welsh capital. The likes of ex- Arsenal ace Aaron Ramsey and Cardiff City star Mark Harris were filming the scenes and dancing to Shakira 's famous 'Waka Waka' song from the 2010 World Cup.
In a fun spin on the tune, the players changed the last line of the chorus from 'this time for Africa' to 'we're going to Qatar'. Ramsey also posted a video of teammate Chris Gunter celebrating outside of Bale's bar amongst delirious fans, as Jonny Williams captured boss Page's dances moves in the dressing room as the party got started.
The Dragons manager was serenaded by his players, with Gala's 1997 dance hit 'Freed from Desire' blaring out from the speakers as the squad sang: "Pagey's on fire, your defence is terrified!"
Page, who replaced Manchester United legend Ryan Giggs in the dugout following his November 2020 arrest, led Wales to the round-of-16 at last summer's European Championships and will soon make history by following the great Jimmy Murphy in leading Wales to a World Cup.
Their memorable 1958 campaign was famously ended by Brazil legend Pele in the quarter-finals. Come November, though, the Dragons will have the own talisman in Bale, who told Sky Sports post-match: "The result is the greatest result in the history of Welsh football. We're all ecstatic, you can see it with the fans, we're going to the World Cup.
"It's what dreams are made of, it's what we've been working for since we first got here, I'm speechless because I'm so happy. We did it for all our amazing fans. Words don't describe how I feel at the moment."
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Bale had been struggling with back spasms towards the end of his final season at Real Madrid but started his nation's all-important clash after being named on the bench in the Champions League final against Liverpool a week earlier. Still, the 32-year-old - now a free agent searching a new club - found the game "difficult," as Page brought Bale off with seven minutes of normal time to go.
"I haven't done too much over the last four weeks because of my back spasm which everyone knows about," the winger explained. "I was just happy to get through the game, contribute in any way I could, the important thing was to get the win and get through to the World Cup."
