La Decima point key for €100m man Bale

From his first day in Madrid, Gareth Bale knew all about La Decima. He had just become the most expensive player in world football, and a succession of well-wishers stopped by to make it clear to the Welshman that he had been bought for one reason above all others: to help Real Madrid to their tenth European Cup.

To call the 12-year pursuit of La Decima an obsession would be to underplay it.

Madrid have spent €1.1bn on players and gone through 11 different managers since Zinedine Zidane’s lazy, perfect volley tore past Bayer Leverkusen’s Hans-Jorg Butt in Glasgow back in 2002 to win their ninth crown.