When Gareth Bale made his debut in April 2006, he stepped into a significant second place – behind his Academy room-mate, Theo Walcott, who’d become the youngest ever Southampton debutant earlier that season. Gareth was the nephew of Chris Pike, who’d made most of his 250 League appearances for Cardiff City and was spotted – “from two pitches away” – playing in a six-a-side U-9 tournament in Newport and developed at Southampton’s satellite academy in Bath, run by Rod Ruddick, the man who had espied him from afar.

At 14, Gareth could run 100 metres in 11.4 seconds and had a left foot so classy that his egalitarian PE teacher had to limit its use.

And yet there were doubts – as to his mental fitness, his size and a back problem caused by bones growing faster than his body weight. All of which were soon forgotten as Gareth became yet another golden graduate from Southampton’s academy.

Despite being only 16 when introduced at left-back, his composure in defence, the weight of balls delivered to his forwards, his surging runs and accurate crosses from the trickiest of positions enabled him to make the position his own in 2006-07, as the Saints fans were treated to arguably the most impressive full season ever by a rookie.

His speed and stamina effectively meant that he could play in three positions at once – full-back, left midfield and outside-left – and that cultured left foot could delicately wrap itself around a ball to fire a free kick into the net with fearsome power. If you add these qualities to an equable temperament, a physical presence and a fearless approach,

you were pretty much looking at a perfect player.

With the Saints soon going into decline and Premiership predators hovering, his exit was, by the time the season climaxed in a play-off defeat with Derby, inevitable. Tottenham’s Harry Redknapp, who had briefly been young Gareth’s manager at St Mary’s, won the race for his signature. The fee was £5m, rising to £10m, but Spurs had got a bargain – even more so when they were able to lessen the add-on obligations by paying a now cash-strapped Southampton a smaller amount over a shorter period.

Bale initially struggled at first to make an impact at White Hart Lane. Injuries and then the form of Benoit Assou-Ekotto incredibly meant that it wasn’t until January 2010 that he started a Premier League game that Tottenham actually won. His derailed career was now back on track, aided by a move forward into a wide midfield role, whence his surges were about to become a widely admired trademark – most famously so in the San Siro, in the Champions League in October 2010. His second-half hat-trick was not enough to save the match, but who would demur from the verdict of Harry Redknapp, that he had never

“seen one player terrify a team so completely as Bale did Inter Milan”

It was inevitable then that the vultures would now become the victims as Real Madrid prised him away from north London for a world record €100m. He was now a big fish, but not the biggest – that honour fell to Ronaldo, in a big pool but he helped Madrid to four Champions League trophies. In the summer of 2019 there was talk of a move to China but an uneasy truce put any move away from the Spanish capital on hold, until the late summer of 2020 when he returned, on loan, to Tottenham.