Gareth Bale: Wales captain is a ‘once in 100 years’ player

Having won countless team and individual awards at club level, there’s not much that Gareth Bale hasn’t done during his long and successful footballing career. At an international level though there’s still plenty that the 33-year-old Wales captain wants to achieve – starting this month in Qatar at the Fifa World Cup.

After coming through the play-offs, Robert Page’s Welsh squad qualified for their first World Cup since 1958. Sixty-four years ago Wales’s only World Cup campaign was ended by Brazil and a 17-year-old Pele at the quarter-final stage. Can the current Red Dragons emulate the “class of 58” and qualify from the group in Qatar? That’s the aim for Bale and Co.

Before flying to Doha with the Welsh squad, Bale had the chance to meet 1958 legends Cliff Jones and Terry Medwin, The Sun reported. And in footage released by the Football Association of Wales he told them that “all he cares about” is qualifying out of the group. “We have a good chance of getting through,” he added. “We will give it everything.”

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Facing England, the USA and Iran in group B, Wales will have “high hopes of making it to the knockout stages”, said James Brownsell on AlJazeera.com. And if they can keep their “veterans injury-free”, they’ll stand a chance of “progressing further”.

‘If needed, I’ll play three 90s’

Bale will go into the World Cup having only played 28 minutes for club side Los Angeles FC since the end of September, said The Guardian. His last full match came for Wales against Poland on 25 September and before that against Austria on 24 March. Despite concerns over his fitness, the forward insists he is “fully fit and ready to go”.

Wales kick off their group B campaign against the US on Monday 21 November followed by games against Iran (25 November) and England (29 November). “If I need to play three 90 minutes, I’ll play three 90s,” he said.

With a national record 40 goals in 108 games for his country, Bale is undoubtedly Wales’s talisman and star player. His lack of pre-tournament match action could be a concern for some, but not for former Wales striker John Hartson. Ideally you want players “with minutes in their legs” and if it were any other player then “it would be a concern”, Hartson told World Soccer. But Bale “isn’t your average footballer” ��� he’s the captain with more than 100 caps, he’s Wales’s record goalscorer, he’s got five Champions League winners’ medals, and a world-record transfer fee. “Players like him come around once in 100 years.”

‘He just loves playing for Wales’

Now into the twilight of a brilliant career, there has been speculation that Bale could retire from international football after the World Cup. But Wales’s “core of ageing veterans” – Bale (33), Aaron Ramsey (31), Joe Allen (32), Wayne Hennessey (35) and Chris Gunter (33) – have promised head coach Robert Page that they won’t all quit at the same time, said The Mirror.

Bale has even said that wants to play for Wales beyond Euro 2024. “He will carry on – I expect him to be there, I do,” Page said. “I will tell you why, irrespective of what is going on in his career, he is always there for Wales. Whether he is playing or not at club level he just loves playing for Wales.”

When he does finally hang up his boots, Bale can look back on a career where he has won five Champions Leagues with Real Madrid, two PFA Players’ Player of the Year titles while playing for Tottenham in the Premier League and also “what he has done for Wales and taking them to tournaments”, said Jamie Carragher on Sky Sports. “I think when he finishes his career, he will go down as one of the greatest British players of all time.”