Gareth Bale will take to the field at Legia Warsaw tonight for a Uefa Champions League match with the confidence of a man who is wanted by his club.
The Welshman has agreed to a contract extension that will keep him at the Bernabeu until 2022 and make him the best-paid player at the European champions on a reported €400,000 (Dh1.5 million) a week after tax.
There is also an astronomical and never to be met €1 billion buyout clause, a firm indication that Bale intends to finish his career at Madrid.
Madrid fear the increasing financial wealth of the Premier League and, coupled with their own transfer ban, want to tie down their stars on long-term contracts until their early 30s.
It satisfies them and the Primera Liga that the best British players choose not to play in the Premier League, but in Spain. Manchester United have asked about Bale in each of the past four seasons.
Cristiano Ronaldo will be the next to extend his contract, but the Portuguese is four years older than Bale, who will be expected to step up and be the talisman for Real Madrid when – or if – Ronaldo declines.
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Now in his fourth season at Madrid Bale has done well. He has settled into the system and status of a club where many have struggled.
It has not been an easy ride and he was booed by his own fans and criticised in the media after indifferent form in 2014/15, but he claims that has made him stronger as a person and a player.
Bale’s Spanish could be better and he maintains he is working hard on it. He could, ideally, play a more central role instead of wide on the right, and he could be allowed the kind of freedom that allowed him to run at players that he had at Tottenham Hotspur, but still Bale has become a mainstay in a successful team and has already won two European Cups.
That would not have happened had he stayed in North London.
Yet, while he was shortlisted for the 2016 Ballon d’Or, he is still short of being considered the best player in the world.
He could be better than he is now. His 62 goals in 135 games for Madrid is a return of a goal every 0.46 games. By comparison, Ronaldo has scored 371 in 351 games – that is an incredible 1.04 goals per game.
Bale, 27, has played more minutes than any of his partners in the “BBC” (Bale-Benzema-Cristiano) front line this season. The trio face more competition for forward places, especially from Alvaro Morata, who has returned from Juventus and scored seven goals in all competitions so far this season. Being Spanish and Madrileno also does Morata no harm at all among the Bernabeu faithful.
Madrid are now 16 matches unbeaten away from home in the league, and following Villarreal’s defeat at the weekend are now the only unbeaten side in a league they top.
Ronaldo has won only one Primera Liga title in seven years since joining from Manchester United. Bale has yet to be a league champion with Madrid.
Ronaldo and Bale are among the best-paid players on the planet.
A penny for the thoughts then of the Alaves fans who watched Bale and Ronaldo beat their side 4-1 at the weekend. Bale’s wages alone would be enough to fund their entire playing budget.
Hoping for a repeat of their victory against Barcelona, Alaves fans created a racket and have deeply passionate fans who object to the disproportionate wealth of Spain’s two biggest clubs.
Instead, they focus on their own and one sign behind the goal reads: “Not sitting, eating pipas [seeds], using mobile phones or dressing like Teletubbies with different coloured clothes. Instead, stand, shout, wave a scarf, sing and wear the shirt.”
Alaves also have a flag with the slogan: “Support your local team” with Madrid and Barcelona shirts crossed out.
As in Bilbao, you do not see many shirts of Spain’s big two in their home city of Vitoria.
Alaves have their pride, but Madrid have the money to buy the best and, as with Bale, keep them.
Sociedad’s celebrated youth system
Real Sociedad were delighted this week as their youth system was named by the respected Swiss-based CIES Football Observatory as the fifth-best in Europe behind Real Madrid, Barcelona, Manchester United, Lyon and level with their neighbours Athletic Bilbao.
The biggest clubs mine the best young players and even if they do not make it at the Bernabeu or Camp Nou, they often have successful careers elsewhere. Burnley kept out Manchester United at Old Trafford at the weekend with two former United players – Tom Heaton and Michael Keane – as their stars.
It is more about necessity in the Basque country. Athletic only play Basque-born players. As the dominant club, they make it their aim to find the best eligible players. This makes it even tougher for their neighbours along the coast in San Sebastian, neighbours who had to abandon their own Basque-only policy in 1991 as they struggled to compete.
They broke it by signing a Liverpudlian, John Aldridge. He was a success and was followed by fellow British imports Dalian Atkinson and Kevin Richardson. La Real have happily imported players to this day, but unable to compete with bigger fish, they try and catch them earlier.
Antoine Griezmann was spotted playing in a youth tournament and moved to San Sebastian while still at school. There are worse places to move to than the beautiful city which sits on a shell-shaped Atlantic bay.
After relegation and financial problems caused by living beyond their means in 2007, the club redoubled its efforts to develop players through their Zubieta youth system. They have been Primera Liga mainstays since their 2010 promotion, finishing as high as fourth and playing Uefa Champions League football in 2013.
Last season’s ninth-place finish was creditable in a season when they dismissed manager David Moyes when the team were 15th and replaced him with former Barcelona B coach Eusebio. He has worked closely with young players and has brought about improvement, usually employing a 4-2-3-1 system and a settled team.
Argentine goalkeeper Geronimo Rulli, 24, is excellent – and has a buy-back clause from Manchester City should he be sold. Inigo Martinez is a superb central defender, and midfielder Asier Illarramendi has returned to the form which attracted Real Madrid to pay €40 million (Dh161.7m) for him. Eusebio has a strong squad, with Ruben Pardo to return.
After the weekend away win at Leganes, La Real sit sixth, ahead of Athletic on goal difference, the top-placed team of the five Basque clubs. They won with goals from the old and the new, the local and the imported.
San Sebastian-born midfielder and club captain Xabi Prieto, 33, is in his 15th season as a professional at the club. Striker Willian Jose, 24, is a Brazilian who came from Las Palmas. A big, intelligent forward, he has scored five league goals so far, the same as Cristiano Ronaldo and Kevin Gameiro.
Real Sociedad will face a further test this week when they host Atletico Madrid.
Player of the week — Diego Lopez
Espanyol goalkeeper Diego Lopez was outstanding in keeping a clean sheet away at Real Betis. Another Diego — Reyes — scored a 62nd minutes goal. “My happiest moment,” manager Quique Sanchez Flores said. Betis have only won once at home and manager Gus Poyet is under heavy pressure. “If I go then I’ll go with my dignity intact,” he said. He really does deserve a lot more time than 10 league games.
Game of the week — Sevilla v Barcelona
The Andalusians boast a 100 per cent record from their five home league games, while Barca have won four of their five away matches. It would be less intriguing if it was at Camp Nou, but Sevilla are a different beast at home. Barca are also carrying injuries and struggled to break down fellow Andalusians Granada last week.
What else?
• It’s not only Sevilla’s first team enjoying a great season; the club’s B team are second in Spain’s second tier. They are the only club with a second team in the Segunda and they beat Elche 2-0 at the weekend in front of an impressive 11,185 at the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan which is used by the first team. Their side is comprised mainly of local boys, supplemented by the best of Spanish youth and imported youngsters. The rules mean that they will be denied promotion if they finish in the top two, but their B team is ahead of the first teams of some big clubs including Real Zaragoza, Valladolid, Elche, Mallorca and Rayo Vallecano. It also bodes well for the future at Sevilla.
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