Will This Player Be In The Spotlight In Real Madrid This Year?

On the transfer deadline day in 2013, Real Madrid created a football allegiance between two of the most gifted and, at the time, two of the world’s most expensive players at the Santiago Bernabeu. ( Cristiano Ronaldo was well-established as one of the two best players in the world alongside Clasico rival Lionel Messi. The Portuguese was one half of this allegiance. The other half was undisputedly the best player in the Premier League for two straight seasons and arguably already one of the best players in the world – Gareth Bale.

There were, and perhaps still are, only a handful of players that can rival the Welshman’s rare qualities in the world. Like a prime, younger version of the Ronaldo at Manchester United and his early Real Madrid years before he began his transition to playing more centrally, the former Spurs winger possesses enough pace to outrun a Formula 1 vehicle (just ask Marc Bartra!), an absolute cannon of a left-foot and the leap of a predatory animal.

He has been a player for clutch moments at the Spanish capital, scoring in Champions League finals, Copa del Rey finals, crunch league ties and so on. His success at the club has made him the most successful Britisher in Europe with four Champions League medals to his name. Yet, his stay in Madrid wasn’t meant to be without its fair share of issues, the most obvious one, of course, being Bale’s recurring injuries.

The former Saints winger has missed significant chunks of games during his time at Real, with recurring calf strains, ankle injuries (including damaged tendons) and other muscular injuries. He has notably bulked when compared to his time at Spurs, but on the other hand has become more vulnerable to injuries.

Overall, in his five seasons at Real Madrid – he has racked up 127 league appearances out of a possible 175 – scoring 71 and setting up a further 40. Injury prone or not, those are phenomenal numbers being produced by the winger.

His association and on-pitch relation with Cristiano Ronaldo is another intriguing aspect to consider. The wingers along with Karim Benzema – the famed trinity more commonly referred to as ‘BBC’ – have been one of the most successful attacking trios in the 21st century.

Yet, the gravitational influence on the pitch that Ronaldo possesses does create an impact on the team up to a certain degree. It is, for all intents and purposes, comparable to arguably the only attacking trident that is marginally superior to ‘BBC’ in the modern era – the Barcelona attack featuring Luis Suarez, Lionel Messi and Neymar Jr.

Neymar, after enjoying a vastly successful spell with Barcelona including a treble-winning campaign in his second season at the club, departed the Catalan giants before the 2017/18 season. A Nasser Al-Khelaifi-owned PSG paid, or rather ripped the world record fee paid for Paul Pogba by Manchester United (£89.4m) to shreds by shelling out €222m – Neymar’s release clause to the very last Euro – to take him to Paris.

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