This book is dedicated to Steven Gordon, a true Tottenham fan – and a true friend
CONTENTS
Title Page
Dedication
Acknowledgements
Chapter 1: My Left Foot
Chapter 2: Spur of the Moment
Chapter 3: The Wing Commander
Chapter 4: A Special One
Chapter 5: The Tottenham Tornado
Chapter 6: The Giggs Time
Chapter 7: Inter the Big Time
Chapter 8: Red Alert
Chapter 9: Taxi for Maicon
Chapter 10: I’m Only Human
Chapter 11: Top Gun
Chapter 12: Just Two Good
Chapter 13: The Prince of Wales
Chapter 14: In the Footsteps of Legends
Chapter 15: The Dalglish Seal of Approval
Chapter 16: Ring In the New
Chapter 17: Player of the Year
Sources
Plates
Copyright
‘Bale’s got everything. He’s incredible…I would go so far as to say that Gareth is the best player to come out of Wales since Ryan Giggs. As an Englishman, I am highly disappointed he is Welsh.’
Harry Redknapp, Tottenham manager
‘Tottenham have a cyclone on the left wing whose name is Gareth Bale. He combines the height and build of an 800m runner like Steve Ovett with the acceleration and directness of a rugby winger like Bryan Habana. And when he gets to the byline he delivers curling crosses like a Brazilian. He left Maicon for dead and then a wily old fox like Lucio was left in his wake like someone trying to follow the vapour trail of an aeroplane.’
Spanish newspaper El Mundo
‘Gareth Bale is today the No. 1 player in the world.’
Fabio Capello, England manager
SPECIAL THANKS: John Blake, Allie Collins and all at John Blake Publishing. Andy Bucklow, the Mail on Sunday. Alan Feltham, the Sun. Alex Butler, the Sunday Times. Bruce Waddell, the Daily Record. Dominic Turnbull, the Mail on Sunday. Zoe King, literary agent extraordinaire.
THANKS: Gary Edwards, Kevin Nicholls, Danny Bottono, Ben Felsenburg, Carole Theobald, Colin Forshaw, Ian Rondeau, Russell Forgham, Roy Stone, Tom Henderson Smith, Dave Morgan, David and Nicki Burgess, Denise Hannay, Pravina Patel, Meg Graham, Martin Creasy, Celee and Desmond Campbell, Angela, Frankie, Jude, Natalie, Barbara and Frank, Bob and Stephen, Gill, Lucy, Alex, Suzanne, Michael and William.
He didn’t sulk one little bit when the PE teacher informed him of his decision. Instead, the 13-year-old boy simply trotted away up the football pitch and determined that he would still be the best…at school today and, if his dream went to plan, in the professional game one special day in the not too distant future. Minutes later Gareth Bale went some way to proving that dream could become a reality as he was mobbed by his young team-mates after scoring with his right foot. Then, when he trooped off at the end of the match, he shook hands with the PE teacher who had banned him from using his left foot in that secondary school games lesson because ‘that foot was so accomplished it was unfair’.
After all, the way Gareth saw it the ban had brought an indirect bonus: it had paved the way for him to develop his weaker right foot. He would now make it his aim to strengthen it and become a complete all-rounder…that was the inspirational nature of the Welsh boy wonder from even such an early age.
‘We had to make up special rules for him,’ Gwyn Morris, the head of PE at Cardiff’s Whitchurch High School and the man responsible for the ban, would say years later by way of explanation. ‘In a normal game we had to limit him to playing one touch and he was never allowed to use his left foot. If we didn’t make those rules he would have run through everyone, so it was the only way we could have an even game when he was involved.’
Gareth Frank Bale was born on July 16, 1989, in Cardiff. His father, Frank, was a school caretaker (now retired) while mum Debbie was an operations manager with a law firm (a job she still holds to this day). His sister Vicky, who is three years older and now a primary school teacher in Wales, was also always a big supporter of him and his budding football career – regularly travelling with Gareth and their parents from Cardiff to Southampton and back for training sessions from when he was 14.
Gareth attended Eglwys Newydd Primary School in Whitchurch and then moved up to the High School in the same essentially middle-class suburb, three miles north of Cardiff city centre. It was at Eglwys Newydd that, at the tender age of eight, his talent on the football pitch was first noted by those in the professional game.
Rod Ruddick, who helped run Southampton FC’s satellite academy in Bath, spotted Gareth playing for a youth team called Cardiff Civil Service in a six-a-side tournament in Newport. Ruddick would later recall, ‘Even then, at that age and despite his small size, I could tell Gareth was something special. It was small-sided mini football, six-a-side, but Gareth was head and shoulders above anyone else at the tournament. I used to attend various competitions in south Wales looking for talent, but never have I come across anyone quite like him.
‘Even back in those days, he would race past players down the left wing and score goals.’
Ruddick’s belief that Gareth would always have the pace to see off defenders was confirmed when he subsequently witnessed him finishing second in the Welsh national schools Under-11s 50m sprint.
Gareth was brought up in a family crazy about sport. He would say, ‘My dad was always into sport and my mum was when she was younger, as was my sister. I kind of followed in the family footsteps. My dad played either rugby or football.’ His father also loved golf and his uncle Chris Pike showed Gareth the way forward towards his dreams by making a name for himself as a pro footballer with Cardiff City. At the age of three, Gareth would go to Ninian Park with dad Frank to see Chris play – and Pike proved a fine role model, ending up Cardiff’s top scorer in 1992, the season Gareth joined Frank on the terraces.
Gareth had a steady, stable upbringing in a solid family setting. He was a happy boy who spent most of his time kicking a ball about outside the family’s modest three-bedroom terraced home.
‘Everything was very local in terms of friends and people we knew – my best friend Ellis lived across the back from me. I remember my childhood spending time in the back garden or down at the park with my friends, playing football, messing around – doing what all kids do,’ he would say.
He was interested in many sports – he was also good at rugby, hockey and distance running – but football was always his No. 1 priority.