Real Madrid

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 02 Sep 2013 08:14:00 +0000

Gareth Bale: Real Madrid star will keep his feet firmly on the

ground

Gareth Bale's life will never be the same again

From this moment on, he will be known as the 100m euro man. When he arrives in Madrid he will be accompanied to the Bernabeu by police outriders, pursuing paparazzi and passionate fans - the 11th galactico in the white number 11 shirt. His every appearance will bring with it a weight of expectation.

He will be feted and vilified, his life will come under the microscope like never before. But none of whatever triumph, disaster, heartache and adulation he faces in Madrid will be allowed to go to his head

That is because Bale does not fit the stereotype of the world's most expensive footballer. He does not drink alcohol, he is scared of spiders and he visits his mum in south Wales when he gets time off. The boy from north Cardiff has never found it hard to stay grounded

Those closest to him describe him as beguilingly modest, polite and normal. His girlfriend, Emma Rhys-Jones, is his childhood sweetheart and most of his closest friends are from his schooldays. In public, he is understated, wary of saying anything that might be deemed boastful. No-one, it seems, has a bad word to say about him

That is not to say that Bale does not have a mischievous side. In the dressing room, he is the life and soul of the party, dishing out the banter and repartee. But when the subject turns to football, his friends talk of his pure love of the game above all else.

As a young boy in south Wales, he would drag his father Frank off the sofa when he got back from work and across to the park for yet another kick-around.

"Literally, from the age of three, all I thought about was football," he once said. "I never wanted to do anything else and when people said, 'what will you do if you don't make it as a footballer?' I couldn't answer because I'd never thought of doing anything else."

By Ben Smith BBC Sport

Champions League

Real Madrid