Bale making name as Europe’s most exciting player

PARIS — A shade over two months ago, in a packed auditorium in Monaco, Sisenando Maicon Douglas — known simply as Maicon by the opponents who fear him — beamed with pride as he was presented with a ball-shaped silver trophy for being the best defender in European club football for 2010.

By (AP)

Published: Wed 3 Nov 2010, 10:03 PM

Last updated: Mon 6 Apr 2015, 4:29 AM

How quickly a reputation can be ruined.

Gareth Bale is the player making a name for himself now. On Maicon’s back. In two astounding nights of Champions League football that confirmed him as Europe’s most exciting footballer of the moment, Bale made Maicon look silly.

He did the same to Lucio, too. Simply astonishing when one remembers that the defensive partnership between those two imposing Brazilian internationals was a foundation stone for Inter Milan’s success last season. They formed part of coach Jose Mourinho’s defensive fortress which broke Lionel Messi’s Barcelona and, in the Champions League final which followed, prevented Bayern Munich from lighting up the scoreboard at Madrid’s Bernabeu stadium.

Yet Bale blew past both defenders repeatedly on Tuesday night as though they were hardly there. Such speed. Even at full tilt, Tottenham’s wonder winger gives the impression that he could, if needed, run faster still.

He is impishly cheeky with his changes of pace, too. Allowing Lucio a tempting head-start to a ball only to leave him for dead was delightful. That eel-like run from deep in Tottenham’s own half and down the left side that Bale transformed into his own personal playground came four minutes before the final whistle, so the 21-year-old has enviable stamina, too.

His manager, Harry Redknapp, joked ebulliently afterward that the post-match dope testers would be wise to take a look at Bale. Redknapp will laughing even harder if he can now fend off interest from European clubs bigger than Tottenham, and for whom money is no object, that are probably going to try to recruit such a fine creator and scorer of goals.

Based on this enthralling match, Alex Ferguson was absolutely correct in arguing this week that the Champions League offers more attractive football than the World Cup. Although, unlike the Manchester United manager, I would still rather watch even a poor World Cup match — and there were too many of those this year in South Africa — than visit the dentist, which he suggested would be a better use of one’s time.