When he’s playing football, which he hasn’t done much professionally in the last couple of years, and when his passion is trained on the ball and not at his managers (as he tends to do in the form of tantrums), no footballer on earth is as enigmatic as Gareth Bale. A lot of stars have to align for Bale to be in full flow on a football pitch these days. But when that alignment does take place, like on Sunday evening against Sheffield United in the Premier League, the irrepressible Welshman always makes you wonder what could’ve been if his true meaning hadn’t been lost amid all the prevalent madness that is his club career.
Make no mistake, Bale’s hattrick for Tottenham Hotspur – the club where he went from a stodgy left-back to one of the most flamboyant strikers in the world, a transformation that made Real Madrid sign him for a world-record fee in 2013 – came against bottom-placed Sheffield United, the first side to be relegated this season. But it could well have been against leaders Manchester City or even the club he’s here on loan from, Real Madrid. For, Bale’s goals weren’t so dependent on the opposition or its defence — they were down to Bale and his left foot. That’s how incredible his touch (and finishing) was.
But for all that to happen, Bale needed to play in the first place, which wasn’t happening all that much since he arrived at the refurbished Tottenham Hotspur Stadium last September. It was only at the very end of Jose Mourinho’s reign that Bale was given a starting position in a run of matches, but after a particularly productive one against Crystal Palace (two goals and an assist), the foot was in his mouth again. In short, he claimed that his priority was to return to Real Madrid. Yes, the same Madrid that he couldn’t wait to leave under the stewardship of Zinedine Zidane; the same Madrid that he infamously ranked below his favourite pastime.
At Euro 2016, where he dragged Wales all the way to the semi-final, Bale unfurled his nation’s flag studded with these words: “Wales. Golf. Madrid. In that order.” He could afford to be silly because Bale wasn’t just banging in goals, he was banging in all-time great goals. Two years before that Euro, his solo-run against Barcelona in the Copa del Rey final resulted in not just a late winner for Madrid, but arguably the greatest goal in the final of the 118-year-old tournament. Then, two years on the other side of the Euro, he played and starred in the final of the UEFA Champions League against Liverpool. No arguments about the first of his goals in Kiev – that overhead screamer now ranked alongside Zidane’s effort for the same club on the same stage in 2002.
Zidane and Bale shared a straightforward relationship in the sense that neither made any bones about their dislike for each other. It was a little more layered and complicated between Bale and Mourinho, who claimed to have sparked off the process to sign the rising star at Real in 2013, the year the Portuguese manager was sacked from the Madrid club. By the time Daniel Levy, chairman at Spurs, reunited them in 2020, Mourinho’s gaze had turned towards younger talent. And from the bench they both watched Harry Kane and Son Heung-min do their thing and in turn destroy the record for most goal combinations ever in a Premier League season.
It was under Ryan Mason – a former teammate at Spurs and two years younger than 31-year-old Bale – that he made yet another comeback. It wasn’t just Bale who Mason pulled out of Mourinho’s attic, Dele Alli had been dusted free of his cobwebs too. And in Tottenham’s most attacking formation in a long while, at least one of them sizzled. “Front foot football,” Bale later called it, with a wink. But before that, it was his left foot that did all the shimmering.
The first moment of dazzle came on the end of a lob over the Sheffield defenders from Serge Aurier, which Bale pounced towards with a long stretch of his left leg. A dink from the edge of his boot broke the deadlock. If that goal highlighted his deftness, the next headlined his raw power. From the recesses of the pitch, Son broke through the right in a breathtaking counterattack (as a young Bale once used to do on the opposite flank) and released Bale into space. But because he was still some way from goal, Bale ran with it for a while before letting a thunderous kick complete the job.
The hattrick shot was a neat blend of the first two – a deft touch over a long distance that even ended up nutmegging a defender on its rolling journey. In celebration, Bale held up three fingers to the cameras, one of them perhaps trained at past authorities, before he suddenly stopped and pulled the trigger on his celebration – what else but a golf putt. In that moment, Bale watched the imaginary ball all the way until it disappeared into a hole, but in reality, it was Bale who was finally emerging out of one.