Last season was and is still Gareth Bale's most productive and prolific season till date. However, he has not always been the star attraction at White Hart Lane. His elevation in status comes on the heels of Croatian Luka Modric's departure in 2012 to the same club Bale now wants to be a part of. While Gareth Bale had long gone on to become the star attraction in English football, Luka Modric has seemingly disappeared into oblivion and football obscurity. Ever since he made the switch to the Spanish capital things has not been easy for him, despite all the hype and controversies that surrounded his transfer to Florentino Perez's club. Last season under Jose Mourinho, he often found himself on the fringes of activities at the Santiago Bernabeu. Mesut Ozil, Xabi Alonso, Sami Khedira and Angel Di Maria were usually the preferred midfield quartet,while Karim Benzema led the attack and Portuguese superstar, Cristiano Ronaldo, operated from the wings.
But is Gareth Bale a superstar or will he ever be one? Yes, he can go on to become a superstar in the future. No, he is not yet a superstar. He would have to wait for a few more years before he becomes one - if he will ever become one. Currently, there are only two superstars in world football: Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. Some might be tempted to include Neymar in that list, but he is too young and rather inexperienced to make it into my own list. Perhaps, his capture by Barcelona earlier on in the summer transfer window might have been the reason why Madrid are so desperate to sign Bale.
Neymar, as we all know, snubbed Real Madrid in favour of "the best team in the world" Barcelona. It might have hurt Madrid's ego and that of their President, Florentino Perez, and they decided that they would not sit back and let arch-rivals, the Blaugrana, take away the shine from them like they usually do these days on the field of play. That might have necessitated all these Gareth Bale frenzy.
Frenzies like this and mad spending sprees involving astronomical sums of money are the things we have come to associate with Real Madrid in recent years. The same frenzy surrounded the capture of then-World Footballer of the Year, Cristiano Ronaldo, in 2009 after three superb season with Manchester United (the last three seasons of his seven-year stint at Old Trafford). Madrid, in their usual fashion and buoyed by the media tag, "the biggest club in the world", which is not unrelated to their glory days that are long gone, turned the head of Cristiano Ronaldo and convinced him that Manchester was not the right place for him. Madrid was.
How true that is remains to be seen. While Ronaldo has more than proved that he is worth the £80 million splashed on him that summer, he has always lived in the shadows on the diminutive Lionel Messi ever since he made that move. From 2009 (the year of his arrival in Madrid) till date, Messi has been the undisputed King of Football. He has won the FIFA Ballon d'Or (or the World Footballer of the Year) four straight times since the Portuguese joined him over there in Spain. So, whether his move to Madrid has actually helped him or not remains to be seen, but it was a giant leap in his career. But this analysis is not about Cristiano Ronaldo, it's about the Welshman Gareth Bale.
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| Gareth Bale |
In Tottenham Hotspur, he only participated in the Europa League, Europe's second tier of continental football. His team had actually qualified for the UEFA Champions League by the end of their 2011-12 campaign and they were cautiously popping some bottles of Champagne to congratulate themselves, until their hopes were dashed days later courtesy of Chelsea's (who had finished sixth in the league that season) victory over Bayern Munich at the Allianz Arena to become the champions of Europe. He won nothing at both club and international levels of soccer during this period.
Personal achievements in the 2011-12 and 2012-13 seasons:
- Wales Player of the Year Award: 2011
- Premier League PFA Team of the Year: 2011–12, 2012–13
- FWA Footballer of the Year: 2012–13
- PFA Players' Player of the Year: 2012–13
- PFA Young Player of the Year: 2012–13
- UEFA Team of the Year: 2011
- Premier League Player of the Month: January 2012, February 2013
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| Cristiano Ronaldo |
Coming to club football, he won the FA Community Shield in 2007, Champions League at the end of the 2008 campaign along with the English Premier League. He added the FIFA Club World Cup midway through the 2008-09 season. He rounded things off with the 2008-09 Carling Cup. In the latter season he reached the Champions League finals with Manchester United, but they were beaten by Lionel Messi's Barcelona.
Individual awards for the two seasons:
- Barclays Player of the Year: 2007–08
- Premier League Player of the Month: January 2008, March 2008
- Premier League Golden Boot: 2007–08
- Barclays Merit Award: 2007–08
- UEFA Champions League Topscorer: 2007–08
- UEFA Club Forward of the Year: 2007–08
- UEFA Club Footballer of the Year: 2007–08
- FIFA Club World Cup Silver Ball: 2008
- Ballon d'Or: 2008
- FIFA World Player of the Year: 2008
- FIFPro World Player of the Year: 2008
- Onze d'Or: 2008
- World Soccer Player of the Year: 2008
- PFA Premier League Team of the Year: 2007–08, 2008–09
- European Golden Shoe: 2007–08
- PFA Players' Player of the Year: 2007–08
- PFA Fans' Player of the Year: 2007–08
- FWA Footballer of the Year: 2007-2008
- UEFA Team of the Year: 2007, 2008
- FIFA FIFPro World XI: 2007, 2008
- Portuguese Footballer of the Year: 2007, 2008
+ comments + 3 comments
Gareth bale doesn't worth even 50million pound.
Suarez is better than him in my opinion apart from his attitudinal issues.
The prize tagged on him is been propel high bcos its madrid.
But ur post is bias,u can't compare ronaldo and bale in like manner;reason been that man u has always been a great club prior to ronaldo era,during his era and after his era.
Tottenham just startd performing so well in the past 2 or 3 seasons which can be attributed to bale and modric contribution.
But Ronaldo was pivotal to Man Utd's success in those seasons. Manchester United then was like a one man team.
Gareth Bale to Real Madrid's trading price is high. But he himself is the magnitude of value is not high. Real Madrid in this regard for him is a lot of publicity. In particular, the use of football shirt propaganda. For him to improve visibility.
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