How I uncovered Real Madrid’s sneaky Gareth Bale pursuit when I met him at airport a YEAR before world record transfer
Who would have thought the foundations of a £86million world record transfer would be laid in a Balkan city with a population less than 100,000 people.
Well, that was the case for Gareth Bale in October 2012.
The then Tottenham star had been playing in a 2014 World Cup qualifier for Wales in the Croatian city of Osijek.
Bale and Wales may have lost 2-0 to Igor Stimac’s well-drilled side in Croatia’s fourth largest city but the result came as no surprise.
The scoreline simply proved a sideshow to the main event of flying Spurs winger Bale fast becoming the talk of Europe because of his electrifying displays for both club and country.
Here he was no different with his lung-bursting runs catching the eye once again in a struggling Welsh team.
And I stumbled upon a great follow-up which turned out to be the start of Bale’s mega money move to the Bernabeu 11 months later.
Back then, I was an agency reporter for Westgate in Cardiff, supplying copy for the nationals.
As well as filing for several daily and Sunday newspapers, I was asked to provide post-match analysis for radio station TalkSport.
I agreed I would go on air while we waited to board – in quite possibly the smallest airport I’ve ever been in – before we flew with Chris Coleman’s men from Osijek immediately back to Cardiff.
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I was on the radio for probably five minutes, finished the call, turned around and noticed everyone else had gone on to the plane.
I was literally the last person to leave departures and head across the tarmac to the waiting plane.
I looked up only to see Wales’ talisman Bale a couple of steps in front of me.
Tuesday, October 16, 2012, was a time when he didn’t have a bodyguard standing by his side at every moment.
To put his status into context at that time, Barcelona had been keen on the pacy wideman in the previous summer following his emergence under Harry Redknapp and Andre Villas-Boas.
But now talk was growing of the mighty Real Madrid.
Only an hour or so before this, I’d been speaking to Luka Modric about his close pal Bale with my SunSport colleague Martin Blackburn in the mixed zone at the stadium.
Modric had played alongside Bale between 2008 and 2012 before he moved from Spurs to Real in his own £30million deal just three months before.
Whispers were quickly doing the rounds in the mixed zone that the classy midfielder had handed over a Real shirt to his former team-mate as a souvenir.
Or perhaps a sweetener towards a future move!
So fast forward back to the airport and I instantly spotted Bale was clutching a white plastic bag in his hand.
There was no time to hesitate.
“Is that a Real Madrid shirt in there?”, I asked.
Bale replied: “Yes”.
Before I had time to say anything else, Bale walked to the rear of the plane and I wandered off to the back where the rest of the travelling press pack were allocated their seats.
I couldn’t believe my luck. Confirmation of the rumour mill swirling around post-match.
As I went to sit down on the flight back to Wales, I said to a few of my peers; “I’ve got an even better follow up story.”
We already had in the bag Modric beaming about Bale being on a par with Cristiano Ronaldo.
The usual come and join me plea in journalistic terms.
I recall as Modric was moving through the mixed zone, I kept asking him questions as he walked so we had more quotes for the story.
A tad embarrassing maybe but it got the job done.
And it also made staying at the drab and dreadful Hotel Silver for two nights worthwhile.
That night, plaudits were ringing from Bale’s ears – even in defeat – as you could see he was a special world-class talent performing in front of your eyes.
The defeat all but ended Wales’ hopes of qualifying for the 2014 World Cup but Bale was on the rise – and he took his country along with him thereafter with their Euro 2016 semi-final heroics.
Modric was in no doubt that Bale was good enough to play for Real, he wanted him to make the same move to the Spanish capital and how it would be a treat to have the best two wingers in the world.
His comments did not go down well with AVB, who ordered the ex-Spurs player to stop meddling in their affairs.
AVB claimed Bale was not for sale. Yeah, sure.
Talk of the deal continued for months.
The summer of 2013 turned into a Bale transfer saga which went to the wire after Spurs chairman Daniel Levy dug his heels.
Eventually the Welshman, then 24, was paraded as Real’s £86million signing on September 1, 2013 infront of 80,000 fans at the Bernabeu.
Bale may not have ever reached the heights of Ronaldo or Lionel Messi but the five-time Champions League winner was one of the top five players in world football for a decent period.
He remains British football’s greatest export.
And we’ll always remember Osijek.