Gareth Bale

Quoted from Sandford1981

Sinclair for me. That Rivaldo effort is pretty special too.
Sorry Rick but as far as overhead kicks go that’s bang average!😊

Each to their own 😉.Having said that some wonderful players being named here especially Rivaldo who  was a brilliant operator  👏.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=RM_5tJncHww&si=EnSIkaIECMiOmarE

Does this Ibrahimovic master-stroke qualfy for this competition ?

Quoted from St. Pauli

Does this Ibrahimovic master-stroke qualfy for this competition ?

Open goal.

It's this one, as mentioned earlier.

https://youtu.be/a6OHXjh2CLk

Muzzy Izzets goal was out of this world and had it not been scored at BP on a Tuesday night (IIRC) but scored at somewhere significantly more glamour in it would be mentioned a lot more…

As for Bale, won everything, earned excrement loads, scores some mega goals, it’s safe to say he’s had a successful career, that said, I do wonder if he proves himself out of a move which would likely have meant he’d have played significantly more games and would probably still be playing.

He was dreadful at the World Cup, perhaps his heart isn’t in it anymore…

Absolute top class player who despite a poor World Cup carried his country for a good while.

One thing still irritates me though is an interview just before he’d left Spurs when he’d been awarded a dubious penalty, when asked about it his response was “if there’s contact I’m allowed to go down” can’t remember that in the rules but there you go he’s no different to the majority of players I guess.

Shame. CDAJATL

He's really not been that bothered for some years now. His loan spell at Spurs the other year was pretty disappointing, considering he should have been at his prime. He still got a decent return of goals then thanks to his innate ability but never looked like he was getting out of second gear. I watched quite a few Real games on TV during the couple of seasons after he joined and he was really, really good a lot of the time.

Then, they did the usual thing of trying to turf him out and it spoiled the best years of his career to some degree. He's won loads, made himself a fortune but, for me, there will always be the thought of what if. He could have been even better.

Absolutely incredible player.

With any player there's always a what if.  With Maradona, how good/long could he have gone on if he wasn't coked up to his eyeballs, Messi could have led Argentina to more if he had actually cared about playing for them earlier in his career, Ronaldo if he had figured out how to be a team player, Pele if he had played in Europe...

Bale was, for my money anyway, the best player in the world for a period.  It just so happens that it was at the time when there was an obsession with Messi/Ronaldo and there was no chance that anyone was ever going to be crowned when they were around.

Take away the golf jibes, take away the way his career fizzled out, take away the fact he hates England...he's without shadow of a doubt the best player to emerge from these shores.  Potentially the likes of Rooney, Best, Gazza et al. should have maybe held that title and done more with their careers, but they didn't.  

Quoted from quebec38

Debate over whether he is the best British player ever today. For me, he was a phenomenal player at his peak. Most decorated possibly (5 champs leagues was it?), but not the best ever.

Had a poor World Cup in a poor Wales team. 7 touches against England in the first half I think it was and gave away the ball 4 times or something. He looked finished to me so not surprised at the news, really.

As good as he was at his peak, he can't be in that conversation based off longevity alone. He's tossed off the last however many seasons so that he could take 450,000k p/w instead of something like 150,000k pw and be playing football. Which is his prerogative and I'm not slating him for that in terms of a moral angle, a contract's a contract and I kind of respect him for standing up to Real Madrid the way he has but unfortunately in doing so he's sacrificed his place at the top table of football for me. As hideous a man as he is, you're probably looking at someone like Giggs as best British player of all time. 13 PL titles, 2 CLs and 950+ appearances I think he's got.