The leader of a nation

Posted Friday, October 16, 2015 by Marca.com

"Even Ken Follett knows who Gareth Bale is now", they said on Monday inside the press room at Cardiff City, the Wales national team's headquarters. A little over three years ago, the famous Welsh author said he had no idea who the Real Madrid man was. Back then, a poll by online newspaper 'Wales Online' also failed to include him amongst the country's 50 most famous people. Today, he is number one. "Not even Catherine Zeta-Jones comes close to you", they tell him.

Bale blushes at such praise, although he cannot but feel proud at being his country's spiritual leader. "It's exciting times for Welsh football and exciting times for us. This is just the start and we want to inspire a generation and a nation", said the Real Madrid man, who already dreams of making football his country's national sport, ahead of rugby: "But we also want to get the nation behind us and we obviously want to get more kids playing football which is important. Hopefully now, we can kick on with this campaign and we can qualify for other tournaments".

Bale talks emotionally about his country and what it has achieved, and could not hide his joy when he saw MARCA's front page tribute to him. "It's lovely, I like it", he said in flawless Spanish.