Gareth Bale interview

For Bale, it was the start of an unwanted Premier League record: the longest run of games by any player without being on the winning side – 24 appearances, over more than two seasons. After he arrived as the club’s new manager in October 2008, he told the youngster to 'stop f***ing about with your barnet’. Brought up in Cardiff, he had been spotted by a talent scout when he was still at primary school. He laughs. For matches, my sister used to come as well.’ Bale’s father, Frank, 54, used to be a school caretaker and is now retired. He also has an uncle, Chris Pike, 49, who used to play for Cardiff City, and Bale says they talk about football now and again, but he says, 'My dad’s the one who’s always been there; he’s my hero, you could say.

As long as I’m playing week in week out, I’m going to become a better player.’ I wonder if the extra running that he does on the pitch means that it takes him longer to recover from matches. I ask him if he experimented when he was away from home for the first time. 'I don’t know how anyone else feels but I feel that I recover quite quickly,’ he says. I never really liked it. My bones were growing too quick for my weight.’ Southampton delayed their decision on giving him a full-time scholarship to their academy, with Malcolm Elias, then head of recruitment at the club, wondering whether Bale would make it at the highest level. I think that’s just a part of my game, which gives me a little bit of an advantage, but I’ve been doing that for a long while.’ In fact, the evidence was there at school. Gareth Bale shoots on his way to a hat-trick against Inter Milan at the San Siro in October 2010

He will certainly need to cope with plenty more. For matches, my sister used to come as well.’ Bale’s father, Frank, 54, used to be a school caretaker and is now retired. 'It was a difficult time for me,’ he says. He doesn’t drink. I’m a proud Welshman.’ The two friends may face each other when Wales play England in the European Championship qualifier in Cardiff on March 26. Always polite, always well-mannered,’ she said recently. Everybody was playing pranks on each other.’ Julia Upson, the lodge’s landlady, has fond memories of Bale and Walcott. 'He gets the best out of players, everybody works hard for him and that shows on the pitch. Everybody was playing pranks on each other.’ Julia Upson, the lodge’s landlady, has fond memories of Bale and Walcott. Hij verruilde Tottenham Hotspur in 2013 voor Real Madrid, dat €100.759.417,-voor hem betaalde.

Tottenham Hotspur's electric winger Gareth Bale Photo: Ben Duffy/courtesy of … 'At the time, he’d just come in, we were bottom of the league, I think he needed to give us all a kick up the arse. When you’ve been there for – I think it was nine years – you think you’re going to be there your whole life.’ His Premier League debut came against Manchester United. 'They haven’t changed at all. Even when he was working, he’d do anything for me. 'All the boys living in that house had a lot in common. Gareth Bale interview: born to run How Spurs winger Gareth Bale went from subs bench to superstar Image 1 of 2. But you can imagine what having 12 to 14 boys in a house would be like. I think I’ve become a better player for it. The left-back slot at Spurs, Bale’s original position, was being ably filled by another player, Benoît Assou-Ekotto. Every manager has to have their distance from the players but he lets us go out there and express ourselves, and if a manager does that he’s going to see the best of his players.’ Is Bale still getting better? How did he cope with that? 'I was in the youth team then; I was never involved with the first team when he was there.’ So what is Bale’s impression of the man who some believe will be the next England manager? 'I’m still young, I’m still learning a lot, and I think every game I’m starting to pick up new things. 'I was about eight or nine. Moving to Southampton and into a house with the other 'scholars’, he shared a room during the 2005/6 season with another football prodigy, Theo Walcott, now of Arsenal.

More troubling for Bale was that less than four months after his debut, he suffered a career-threatening injury, damaging ligaments in his right ankle. He stands very upright and appears much taller than his 6ft. 'Takeaway.’ There’s something very unostentatious about Bale – he’s not comfortable talking about how he spends his wealth, although he says, 'I like looking after my family,’ and he doesn’t want to talk about his girlfriend, Emma Rhys-Jones, his childhood sweetheart from Cardiff.

Experts in the game can’t make up their minds about just how good Bale can become, but few think he is anywhere near his peak. It's been quite the 12 months for Gareth Bale. 'No, but I know he’s quicker than me.’ How can you tell?

'He’s got everything,’ Bale’s manager, Harry Redknapp, says.

Fresh from AskMen: How are you enjoying FIFA on the Xbox One, Gareth?AM: Now, you seem to be striking one of sport’s great friendships with a certain Portuguese no7…AM: They’re going to be deciding the World Player of the Year very soon.