We’re all finding it hard to process and say just what Gareth Frank Bale means to Y Wal Goch and wider Cymru, but Dai (@Colemans_dream) does an pretty good job in this blog – a love letter to our talisman.
Dear Gareth Bale,
I know you will have seen a million similar starters to this, but I’ve got to say thank you. You have changed Welsh football. You’ve changed Welsh culture. In fact, you’ve changed Wales.
Embed from Getty ImagesYears ago I went to see Wales lose 5-1 to Slovakia. I saw some young lad with an iffy haircut score a goal which gave me and my friends all we needed at that time. Hope. As a relatively young person myself, my footballing heart had only been broken once or twice, but I was aware enough to know that things were never straight forward. We always needed someone, something to hang onto. That day, it was you.
Embed from Getty ImagesIf someone had told me that when I was 38 years old, I’d be crying in Qatar after watching you score what would turn out to be your last goal, in a World Cup no less, I’d have laughed. If I’d been told that we would have been to a European Cup semi final and the knockout stages of another tournament, I’d have told that person they’d had too much to drink and they needed to go home. Yet here we are. 17 years and 40 (should be 41…) goals later. A football team, and nation, reborn.
Embed from Getty ImagesI don’t want to give you all the credit, because we’ve had some great years due to some great players and great teams. We’ve gone from players avoiding internationals to now actively playing through the injuries or pain because they don’t want to miss out. That culture, and that mentality comes from people like you. Someone who has won it all, performed at the highest levels and kept doing it year on year. It’s easy to look at the goals and the skills and the assists or blistering runs and use that to explain what you are. But we all know it is more than that. We have always been a TEAM. No one recognised or embodied that more than you.
Embed from Getty ImagesLiving the glory years of Welsh football in America, being away from the country gave me a new sense of perspective of what Wales is. What it means to be Welsh. People in the States would ask me where in London Wales was. Kids in the school I worked in genuinely were baffled by the dragon on the flag – did I move here from a Harry Potter style land? Come the summer of 2016, everyone knew. I would sit in a taxi and when asked about where I was from, and as soon I answered, the response was always the same. GARETH BALE! You have helped give this country identity in a way I didn’t think was possible. We aren’t little old Wales any more. We are a force, ready to take on anyone.
Embed from Getty ImagesThinking of America, I will never forget the night we beat Cyprus. Peak Gareth Bale. At the end of the school day (I’m a teacher…), I sat alone in my classroom, consumed. Excitement. Nerves. All awaiting the predictable disaster. An early goal disallowed for no real reason. Wales were going to lose late weren’t we? I’d seen it all too often. I was scarred by those failures. You were empowered by them. Buoyed by them and determined to not be scarred yourself. The ball came, and then vanished into the top of the Cypriot net. Pandemonium on the pitch, and in my classroom. Covered in goosebumps and tears.
There’s too many memories to share and stories to tell, but you should know that we are so grateful for them all. Not just me, but every brick in that Red Wall. For years we’ve needed a hero who was one of us. We’ve had loads of triers and people who cared. Now we had someone who at a time, was probably the best player in the World. To make it even sweeter, the night we booked our collective tickets to Qatar, you were taking your brothers in arms to your pub in Cardiff. Waka Waka indeed.
Embed from Getty ImagesI envy those young boys and girls growing up thinking this is all normal. I envy that they can put a poster of you on their bedroom wall. My wife took mine down. Those kids in bucket hats and red shirts are your legacy Gareth. The goals and the wins and the drunken trips are the reward for many of us, but the real victory is the difference you’ve made to Wales. I couldn’t buy a Wales jumper for love nor money in the early 2000’s. Now I can’t buy one because they’ve all sold out.
Embed from Getty ImagesI couldn’t face a Wales away trip back in the early 2000’s because the football was so uninspiring. Now the clamour for tickets is so big I’ve had to call in sickies for a school year which hasn’t even started yet. You’ve done that. In years to come, when we reminisce about what Welsh football looked like, people won’t believe us. The transformation is so vast it is unrecognisable.
Embed from Getty ImagesI think the little things are key in all of this. Your face was on a skyscraper. When I went to my local pub in the Netherlands, those little World Cup bunting flags had Wales included. Swearing on live TV when reminding Aaron Ramsey it was about time he joined the qualification party. Only needing the dragon on your chest. Laughing at the English press. Wales. Golf. Madrid. You are a special man.
Embed from Getty ImagesFinally, my personal thank you takes me back to May and June. Austria and Ukraine, ready and waiting for us. The Austrians were a good side, and whilst the free kick was special, that goal just after half time was something else. To be in the Canton Stand, surrounded by my friends who had be coming to games with me for years and years, and have that goal happen right in front of my eyes. I couldn’t believe what I was witnessing. It’s as if that red shirt did something extra to you that night. And in turn you crackled and shone and took us, me, to a place of sheer footballing ecstasy I have never felt before.
Embed from Getty ImagesThe Ukraine game was special, but my god it was tense. The Austria game was a pleasure. A knowing laugh in the face of years gone by. We had turned up. You had turned up. We did it. This was happening. Book those flights lads. We’ll beat whoever comes next. Even writing this and thinking back brings a happy tear. So I think that’s what I’m saying thank you for. Happy tears, not angry ones. Thank you for making me feel the way I did that day and many others.
Embed from Getty ImagesGareth – enjoy your retirement. Play as much golf as you can, and if you ever need a golfing partner, I’ll meet you down Cottrell Park.
Diolch for the memories. I hope you know how important you are to this country. To us. To me. To the next generation. You’ve changed us all.
Viva Gareth Bale.
Much love,
Dai
Feature image credit John Candy