Gareth Bale’s Champions League triumph leads him to a career crossroads

Gareth Bale has faced his critics at Real Madrid, but time and time again he comes up with the goods. His Kiev triumph leaves him at a career crossroads.

It became part of the Santiago Bernabeu pantomime. The historic home of Real Madrid has long reveled in its theatrics. This is an arena that has witnessed more glory than any other, at least in the European game, and yet the fans that shuffle through the turnstiles frequently come equipped to protest, white handkerchiefs stuffed in pockets, such is the Spanish tradition. Gareth Bale, more than most, has been the target of these histrionics.

The sound of whistles greeting his every touch has been common for much of the season. A scapegoat for Real Madrid’s problems this season, Bale struggled for consistency and fitness, fighting a losing battle in the minds of many, including his own manager Zinedine Zidane. And yet in the Champions League final, his fourth in five years as a Real player, the Welshman came up with the defining moment.

It was a goal that will go down in Champions League folklore as one of the greatest ever witnessed in the competition. The Welshman shouldn’t even have been able to contort and twist his body into shape for such an effort on goal, but he did, looping a stunning overhead kick over Loris Karius from just inside the box. For years to come, football fans will be asked which goal they preferred – Zidane’s in 2002 or Bale’s in 2018? That question in itself stands testament to the brilliant of what was witnessed in Kiev.

This wasn’t out of the ordinary for Bale, though. It may well have been the best goal of his career, but the Welsh winger has a track record of pulling off the incredible. Just two weeks ago, he scored  a stunner against Celta Vigo, one of the goals of the season in Spain. Four years ago, he scored a goal in the Copa del Rey final against Barcelona that still lives in the memory. Time and time again, Bale has proven himself on the big occasion, as he did once again against Liverpool.

Since leaving Spurs five years ago, Bale has won 10 major honours, including three Champions League titles. He has scored in Clasicos, in finals, defining one of the most successful eras in the history of one of European football’s biggest clubs. He might well be the best British player in history. Yet still this isn’t enough for some.

Bale used his double against Liverpool to send a message – to his critics, his own fans and perhaps even Zidane. “I need to be playing week in, week out and that hasn’t been happening for one reason or the other,” he said when asked about his future at Real Madrid not long after the full time whistle in Kiev. “I have to sit down and discuss with my agent in the summer and take it from there. I was very disappointed not to start the game – I felt like i deserved it. The best I could do is come on and make an impact and that’s what I did.”

For all that Bale has a strong rebuttal to the criticism thrown his way over the past season or so, it’s possible he has grown tired of the way he is treated at Real Madrid. At any other club in Europe, the former Spurs man would be a star. Bale will turn 29 this summer and so, as he says himself, he’ll surely want to find guaranteed, first team football as he reaches his peak. By making such comments, Bale might just have fired the gun on the summer’s defining transfer saga.

There will be no shortage of potential suitors, with Manchester United holding a long-standing interest in the winger. A return to Spurs has also been mooted. Some might argue that Bale should stick around in the Spanish capital, given all he has achieved there. But he deserves a club to call his own, a fanbase that embraces him. Bale’s Champions League final double marks a career crossroads for the Welshman. What happens next will be rooted in what happened in Kiev.