Football’s Greatest Goals No.51
On his day, Gareth Bale can be unstoppable. He can score some quite fantastic goals and be the star player of any team.
He began his career at Southampton before moving to Tottenham Hotspur in 2007. It was during his time in North London that he started to become a world-class player.
His performances for Spurs and Wales attracted interest from the world’s best clubs. Real Madrid came in at the end of the 2013 summer transfer deadline to make a bid of £85 million, making him the world’s most expensive player.
In his first season at the Bernabeu, Bale weighed in with 22 goals and 16 assists. The pick of the bunch came in the Copa Del Rey Final against Barcelona at the neutral venue of Valencia’s Mestalla.
With the scores level at 1-1 and five minutes of the game remaining, Barcelona’s Lionel Messi chipped a cross in from the right wing into the box. It was headed away from danger and eventually reached Gareth Bale who was ten yards inside his own half.
Bale began sprinting at full speed with the ball and hit the ball past Barcelona defender Marc Batra, who had rushed in to try and dispossess the Welshman.
It looked as if Bale had been outmuscled and Batra had squeezed him off the pitch. Suddenly Bale curved his run and ended up inside one of the technical areas and about six yards away from the touchline. He then carried on his sprint and overtook Batra and got to the ball!
Batra was a few paces behind Bale who took a touch and cut inside the penalty area. The Barcelona defender tried to force Bale off the ball but failed and the Real Madrid man before calmly slotted the ball under Jose Pinto.
It was one of the greatest individual goals of this generation, with Bale showed incredible pace, determination and strength.
Real won the match 2-1 to win the Copa Del Rey.
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