A mocked up speeding ticket issued by the Valencia police force appeared the morning after Real Madrid's recent Copa del Rey final victory over Barcelona.
It was issued to “Mr Gareth Frank Bale” for breaching the speed limit of 60kph and quickly went viral. “Gareth Bolt” and “Usain Bale” read the two headlines in the Marca newspaper. They recorded his 60-metre run down the left side of the pitch – and 15m of it was off the pitch – at speeds up to 27kph.
“It was an incredible goal. I’m not sure I have ever seen one like it,” said Paul Clement, Carlo Ancelotti’s English assistant.
“When you see that he is two to three metres off the field in front of the Barca dugout, you never think it’s going to end up with him putting the ball in the back of the net. It was just an amazing goal. It just shows what an incredible athlete he is to produce that kind of run so late in the game.”
Marc Bartra, the Barcelona defender beaten for pace, conceded that his hamstrings had tightened towards the end of the match and there was no way he could keep with Bale when he made his dash five minutes from time.
The memorable goal meant that Madrid fans have finally embraced Bale, which took a while after his record €100 million (Dh509.4m) transfer from Tottenham last August.
Bale has never been unpopular, nor jeered, as happened to Cristiano Ronaldo on his rocky road to become the darling of Madrid, but questions were asked if he justified his huge fee. It is not unreasonable for a club that pays for the best to expect the best.
Bale took time to shine in Madrid. He was outshone by Neymar in his first clasico, but he will be judged at the end of his first season and that first season has been a success.
His statistics are impressive. Bale has scored 20 goals for Madrid and made 18 assists as part of the “BBC” triumvirate of Bale, Benzema and Cristiano.
One of them, Benzema, scored the only goal in last week's Uefa Champions League semi-final first leg against Bayern Munich. Madrid must defend that lead against the holders in Bavaria on Tuesday night. It is the type of game for which Bale, 24, joined the team.
Bayern’s high defensive line is ripe for Bale to exploit, but the Germans dominated the first leg and will be expected to do the same on Tuesday night.
Critics of Bale – and the most demanding club in the world are not short of them – said that he scored his goals against the lesser lights of Vallecano and Valladolid, that he was not a match winner in the biggest games.
His huge price tag was the issue and they pointed to his mute role in two clasicos, yet his performance in a third, in Valencia, changed that, especially as it came in the absence of Cristiano Ronaldo.
Madrid feel they have another match winner and when he celebrated the cup win on the team bus at 4am in Madrid with a scarf around his neck, Bale was finally Madrid’s main man.
Even the Catalan press conceded that the final saw, “too much Bale and not enough Messi”.
Messi could learn from Ronaldo. The Argentine appears to see expensive new arrivals as threats, which raises questions about whether he is more interested in what is best for Messi rather than what is best for Barcelona.
Ronaldo embraced Bale’s arrival. He knew that he could help the team become the best on the planet and tried to make him feel welcome from the start, with Ronaldo being one of the English speakers in the Bernabeu dressing room.
The pair have 19 goals between them in the Champions League this season, but injuries and illness to both mean they have not played together for a month. Bale came off the bench after 73 minutes in the first leg against Bayern and missed Saturday’s 4-0 win against Osasuna.
He returned to training on Sunday and Ancelotti said that if his BBC front line were fit then all would play.
That is what the 4,000 Madrid fans in Munich are hoping for on Tuesday night as their team go in search of the 10th European Cup they have obsessed over since winning the ninth in 2002.
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