Having a ball as Bale shows head for heights

IT HAS BEEN a long time since a British player has become an overnight sensation on the world stage — think of David Beckham and before that, George Best.

But the way Gareth Bale almost single-handedly destroyed Inter Milan, not just on Tuesday night at White Hart Lane but also two weeks ago with a stunning hat-trick at the San Siro, means the young Welshman is makin g headlines throughout the football world.

It was easy to get caught up in the emotion at Tottenham’s home during their 3-1 win over Inter, as Bale inspired his team-mates to give the European champions a footballing lesson.

The electric atmosphere, the baying crowd, the dramatic nature of victory that put Spurs top of Group A all meant hyperbole was never likely to be far away when describing Bale’s performance.

But it was not just the locals who saw something special in the boy from Cardiff. Correspondents from all over Europe were glowing in their praise of Bale after he made Maicon, one of the most respected right-backs in world football, look like an amateur, which begs two questions. How did Bale get to this stellar place from the jinxed player of 12 months ago, who failed to win a league game in his first 24 games for Spurs? And how long can Tottenham hold on to a player who is now on the shopping list of every major club in world football?

First things first.

To turn around the football truism that you do not become a bad player overnight, neither do you develop this sort of talent from nothing. Bale was a schoolboy prodigy, so far ahead of the other boys in his district that his PE master banned him from using his left-foot during matches, to give the other kids a chance.

He was on Southampton’s books from the age of nine and marked out as a special talent even among his peers at the club, including the young Theo Walcott. Southampton’s youth coaches saw Bale reaching greater heights than the Englishman because while they were both champion athletes — Walcott in the 100m, Bale at 1500m — the Welsh boy had bags more footballing ability and awareness.

They were both signed in their teens for big fees by the North London rivals, and then both suffered injuries and criticism soon afterwards.

But whereas Walcott still looks lightweight, easily knocked off the ball and thus prone to aggravating his underlying shoulder problems. the rangy Bale has filled out to become a beast of a winger, 6ft 2ins tall, 13 stone of muscle and bone, and as quick as they come. He is having the same impact Jonah Lomu had on another code when he emerged on rugby’s world stage in the 1990s.

He has also been expertly managed by Harry Redknapp and his coaching staff, who have given Bale a combination of tough love and self-belief. Redknapp admits he was frustrated to see the young Welshman stay down too long whenever he took a knock in training, and told his medical staff to leave him unless he looked seriously injured.

He wanted the Welshman to toughen up, and as anyone who saw the giant Lucio bouncing off him on Tuesday will testify, he is no weakling now.

But Redknapp has also given confidence to a player who was so quiet as a boy that his youth coaches used to make him telephone through the team scores in an attempt to bring him out of himself. He is still quiet, unassuming and unfailingly polite, but there is an inner confidence borne of his displays over the past year.

Now that has brought him to international prominence, will he repay Redknapp’s faith by staying around for the revolution taking place at White Hart Lane? So far the signs are promising for Spurs supporters, with the manager adamant they will not sell, Bale committed to a long-term deal, and the player is saying all the right things in public.

And yet. Yesterday he did a round of interviews as he promoted BT’s new football website, and was asked repeatedly: “Will you be staying at Spurs?” Not once did he give a categorical confirmation. Plenty of “I’m enjoying my football there” and “it’s a great bunch of lads”, but what was missing was Gareth Bale saying: “If Barcelona come knocking, I won’t answer the door.”

Daniel Levy has a track record of selling any star player if the price is right, as Messrs Carrick, Berbatov and Keane (and a cool €70 million in fees) can testify.

So it may be a case of ‘when’ rather than ‘if’ Spurs sell Bale — unless they can match the best and bring home a major trophy themselves. And the way Bale is playing, who is to say that is out of the question?