Perseverance pays off in Gareth Bale’s quest to emulate Zinedine Zidane

http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2014/may/25/gareth-bale-zinedine-zidane-real-madrid

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Xabi Alonso leapt out of his seat, leapt over the barrier and leapt into the air, then sprinted along the touchline in a suit, tie and perfectly polished shoes, and leapt on to a pile of bodies. Zinedine Zidane had got there before him and so had Real Madrid’s players and substitutes. People were falling all over the place, delirious. In the middle of the pile somewhere was Gareth Bale. It was the 110th minute and he had just scored the goal that meant that now, surely, Real Madrid knew they were going to win their 10th European Cup.

“It’s hard to describe what it felt like: seeing all the fans there and all the players run over was an amazing feeling,” Bale said with a smile. In the crowd was his family. “They’re all here: it was great for them to be able to enjoy it,” he said.

Out on the pitch, he paraded with a Wales flag round his waist and a Madrid scarf round his head. By the time he appeared in the basement of the Estádio da Luz, it was well after midnight and he now wore the club’s black suit, albeit with his Madrid shirt underneath. Round his neck was his medal and he carried a plastic bag. In it was the ball.

“This is what I came for,” he said. Not the ball in the bag but the trophy that, 50 yards or so away, had been placed at the front of the team bus: the European Cup.

Bale was acutely aware of the significance of la décima, the 10th. “Everybody was talking about it when I arrived,” he admitted. He had watched Madrid win their ninth when Zidane scored the winner. Now he had scored the game’s decisive goal – before Marcelo and Cristiano Ronaldo added the gloss – and Zidane had piled on. Bale was 12 when he watched that match and that was the point: Madrid had waited a dozen years, the obsession growing. The Spain and Madrid captain, Iker Casillas, described finally bringing that wait to an end as better than winning the World Cup.

The headlines in Portugal were, of course, for Ronaldo, who scored the fourth from the penalty spot and tore off his shirt, and with whom Bale embraced at the full-time whistle. There were other protagonists too: Ronaldo was a European champion in his country’s capital, the competition’s top scorer on a record 17 goals; Luka Modric played superbly; Marcelo’s impact was huge; and Angel di María was voted man of the match.

Above all, this extraordinary final will be remembered as Sergio Ramos’s final because of the 93rd-minute header that took the game into extra-time and changed everything: the draw felt like a defeat for Atlético, whose players were exhausted and emotionally broken. Their history is a cruel one. They have now played two finals, 40 years apart. A combined total of less than two minutes has cost them the two titles.

When Ramos’s header went in, it seemed inevitable that Real Madrid would win it. Bale certainly thought so. “I felt that when we got the equaliser we had the momentum going into extra-time and we looked a bit fresher,” he said. “They had a few players who had cramp. We showed what a good physical condition we are in and thankfully got the job done.”

Until Ramos’s goal, Madrid seemed destined to fall at the final hurdle. But this success will be remembered as Bale’s too. Not just because of the goal but because, as the summer’s record signing, this was his year. Madrid’s successes would always be his; so too, and this was the risk, their failures. Here, Bale had missed arguably the game’s best two opportunities, one in each half. But he later scored the goal that eclipsed them, and this was not the first time Madrid found an escape route.

“It happens,” he said. “Sometimes you don’t get the rub of the green but you have to keep persisting, keep going, and you may get that chance that will make the difference. Thankfully I was able to get that chance and take it.”

“A few thoughts crept into my mind. But we have been like that all season, when we have been down in the last minute and always been able to come up with a crucial goal. We gave everything and showed the character we have got. We showed what we were about: we kept believing in the football that we play and we came out on top.”

“In normal time, he probably had the best chances,” said Paul Clement, Madrid’s English assistant coach, with whom Bale has shared so much. “But it was a wonderful moment at the back post in extra-time and that’s credit to his fitness and that physical stature he’s got. It’s just been a great first year for Gareth, unbelievable. The sort of stuff that dreams are made of.”

The newspaper Marca, meanwhile, noted: “It is impossible to remember a player being so decisive in his debut season.” Bale had finished the campaign with 17 assists and 22 goals, including the winner in the final of the Copa del Rey and his decisive header in the European Cup final, the goal Madrid had waited more than a decade to celebrate. At his presentation, Bale had promised to try to win la décima. Many had made the same promise – in fact pretty much all of them had. But, for more than 10 years, none delivered. Until now.