I used to watch Arsenal a lot, says Bale

 

Gareth Bale risked the wrath of Tottenham supporters as he revealed he enjoyed watching Arsenal growing up.

The Real Madrid attacker became the latest big name to take a stroll down memory lane in BT Sport’s What I Wore series.

Reflecting on his career to date, the Welshman opened up on his appreciation for Arsenal icons Thierry Henry and Dennis Bergkamp as he developed his game as a youngster. 

Bale announced himself at the top of the game in a Tottenham shirt but while holding an Arsenal shirt with Henry emblazoned across the back, admitted he watched the Frenchman closely in his early days.

“I used to watch Arsenal a lot and I really enjoyed watching people like (Thierry) Henry,” he said. “I used to like watching Dennis Bergkamp as well. They had a great team – Tottenham fans won’t be happy that I am holding this!’

The 29-year-old’s early memories come from growing up in Wales in the 1990s and while Henry and Bergkamp were enjoyable to watch, Ryan Giggs - now his national team boss - provided one of his biggest influences. 

Shown the jersey Giggs wore during the 1999 season -notably the shirt he wore against Arsenal in the famous FA Cup semi-final at Villa Park - Bale could not speak highly enough of a player he based his game on.

He said: “He was a massive influence – he was my hero growing up! Obviously being Welsh, left-footed and I looked up to him a lot. I used to enjoy watching him play and obviously now he is my manager! Like all kids do they want to be a player and I used to shout that I was Giggs. I didn’t have quite the hairy chest…”

But asked whether he is a better player than Giggs was, Bale sensibly decided he would leave that up to football fans.

Bale has seen his career sky-rocket having gone from Southampton’s academy to a three-time Champions League winner with Real Madrid. 

One of the big talking points in the media during his time with the 13-time European champions was his relationship with Cristiano Ronaldo.

Stories were rife that the pair endured a fractious relationship before Ronaldo swapped Madrid for Turin as he opted to join Juventus last summer.

But Bale, holding one of Ronaldo’s Real Madrid shirts from recent years,insisted talk of unrest could not be further from the truth and that they got on really well both on and off the pitch.

“Cristiano is an incredible player, I thoroughly enjoyed playing with him,” Bale said. “Obviously the media try and hype up these problems which were never there. We got on really well. He’s an incredible player and what he did for the club with the amount of goals he scored. An incredible player and he is still going now.”

Swapping White Hart Lane for the Santiago Bernabeu was a move that saw Bale become the most expensive player at the time.

He was in rich form for Tottenham having become the team’s main man and while they desperately tried to keep him, the Welshman admitted there was no way he could turn down a club the size of Real.

“I just remember my unveiling at the stadium and there was about 40,000-50,000 people there and I was just like ‘oh my god.’ It felt amazing to finally be there because it had been a long road in that transfer window, obviously. I appreciated everything Tottenham had done for me but I think they did understand at the time that when such a big club comes in for you like Real Madrid it is difficult to turn them down. Even though I was enjoying my time at Tottenham, loved the club and I still do, to have Real Madrid come for you, you’ll regret saying no.”

In his time in Spain, Bale has 102 goals and 63 assists from his 224 appearances in the famous white Los Blancos strip. 

But while Bale has shown composure on the biggest of stages - namely scoring crucial goals in Champions League finals - he rolled back the years in What I Wore to reflect on his nervous state before his Southampton debut.

At the age of 16, Bale was propelled from the academy set-up and made his debut in a 2-0 win over Millwall. He said: “I remember my first game, I was so nervous! I felt like I didn’t want to go out on the pitch to be honest, I was 16 at the time, had been playing in the reserve team and doing well and to be honest I wasn’t really expecting to be called up to the first team.”

“I remember one of the boys my age said ‘I have heard that you might be going to the first team’ and I said ‘no, don’t be stupid! and I remember just having the chat and training and it was surreal.We used to train on the lower pitches on the other side of the training ground and we used to come back in early sometimes to watch them train and be in awe of them. To then be there was just one of the best feelings. You felt like you had made it there and then.”

“I loved playing for Southampton, the fans are incredible and I will always be in debt to them.”

While eyebrows will be raised at his gushing praise for Arsenal legends Bergkamp and Henry, Bale looked back with great fondness in the series at his time with Tottenham.

Quizzed on whether he has apologised to Inter Milan defender Maicon - having torn the Brazilian to pieces during a famous Champions League double-header - the Welshman was reduced to laughter as he recounted the moment he took his game to the next level. 

“For me it was a big turning point in my career,” he added. “It made me believe that I could mix it with the big boys.”