He’s in. Now he just has to fit in. Gareth Bale was the only man on the stage on Monday as Real Madrid supporters welcomed him to the club.
When he returns for his first day of training on September 11, though, the Welshman will be just another superstar in a dressing room packed with World Cup winners all wondering if he’s worth all the attention and money.
Real Madrid players were famously furious that the pursuit of David Beckham and his subsequent arrival in 2003 overshadowed them winning the title. That he won them over was helped by the fact that those most put-out by his arrival were sacked or sold before Beckham kicked his first ball.
Kissing the badge: Bale gives the Real crest a smooch
Pitching in: Bale's family join him on the Bernabeu playing surface and he will need their support this season
Bale’s path to the first team was busily being cleared last night by the sale of Mesut Ozil to Arsenal.
But such was the German’s popularity at Real that winning over the dressing room could now be even more difficult. he was one of the few players with friends on both sides of the club’s divide.
But such was the German’s popularity at Real that winning over the dressing room could now be even more difficult. he was one of the few players with friends on both sides of the club’s divide.
Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portuguese contingent were all fond of Ozil, while captain and Spain standard-bearer Sergio Ramos even risked Jose Mourinho’s wrath to stand up for Real’s No 10.
In a game against Deportivo, when Ozil was taken off at half-time, Ramos put the No 10 shirt on under his own for the second half.
He felt Ozil was being unfairly targeted by Mourinho and if he scored was ready to rip off his shirt to dedicate the goal to his friend.
And there are other voices of dissent. Madrid’s former sporting director, Jorge Valdano, has already said: ‘If they gave me the choice I would put the Ozil-Angel Di Maria pairing before Bale. I would certainly put Ozil before Bale.’
Accepted: David Beckham won over Raul and the other Real Madrid stars - Bale must do something similar
Real claim the move to Arsenal is a result of Ozil wanting to leave but everyone knows he has been told to go because the club need to pay loans taken out to bring in Bale, costing £100m-plus in repayments.
Bale will earn £12m a year, putting him just behind Ronaldo in the club’s pay structure.
Madrid want Ronaldo to sign a significantly improved deal to ensure he retains his status as their top earner but Bale’s wages will still upset club captains Ramos and Iker Casillas, who earn much less.
Indeed, a host of stars’ wages will now lag behind the new No 11’s massive deal.
Indeed, a host of stars’ wages will now lag behind the new No 11’s massive deal.
The queue to director general Jose Angel Sanchez’s office to ask for that to be rectified will be long. His fee, at least according to Real, has not eclipsed Ronaldo’s, whose attitude towards Bale will be key in him settling.
When asked about Bale this summer, Ronaldo said: ‘I have my opinion but I’m not going to make it public.’ Hardly a ringing endorsement as he then praised the other signings Real had made, making much of the fact they were Spanish and had La Liga experience.
Political football: Bale will have to get on the right side of Cristiano Ronaldo
If Bale gels with Ronaldo on the pitch, the battle will be half won. But, no matter what was said on Monday, they will both want to make the same runs, take the same free-kicks and essentially offer the side the same qualities.
Ronaldo will miss Ozil’s ability to find him with a pass anywhere on the pitch, something Bale will not be able to offer. Ronaldo is also close friends with Di Maria, who has stayed, but will now start games from the bench behind Bale.
Ronaldo made it his business in the summer to pressure the club to keep the Argentina forward and he will go on protecting Di Maria, a player with whom he shares the same agent, Jorge Mendes.
Much is made of Bale needing to learn Spanish quickly, but Beckham knew almost as many words the day he left as the day he arrived — and it did him no harm.
More important will be attitude. Beckham embraced the adventure; the more reticent Michael Owen did not — and had a much tougher time. Owen was always the first player to shower after training and drive away from Madrid’s Las Rozas training camp.
Making way: Ozil was popular with the Real Madrid players but was shipped out to part-fund the Bale deal
He always had a word for British journalists waiting at the gates, occasionally checking the day and time of Madrid’s next game, such was his apparent exclusion from the heart of the squad.
He stayed in a hotel far from the private estates of ‘La Finca’ and ‘La Moraleja’ on the outskirts of the city where most of the players live.
Bale will do well to get himself and his family into one of those luxury player villages — where his team-mates spend their lives away from training — and out of the Hotel Mirasierra, where he will begin his new life in the capital.
Owen, holed up in a hotel, became a victim of the politics inside the dressing room and the friendship between Spain strikers Raul and Fernando Morientes. Coach Jose Camacho was pressured by Raul to pick the pair at Owen’s expense.
After one game in which, leaned on by the president, Camacho picked Owen to start, Raul was furious. Camacho quit days later, complaining of too many influences on his team selections.
Face didn't fit: Michael Owen had an unhappy time at the Bernabeu
All manner of problems can be solved by delivering on the pitch, of course, and Bale will get that chance, often denied to Owen. Any animosity from the Ronaldo clique, or Ramos and the Spanish core, will evaporate if he wins matches.
The squad is united by a bond felt by all who had grown tired of Mourinho last season and were desperate for a new era.
Bale’s arrival will shake that unity but it need not shatter it.
‘In a couple of seasons we will know if he has been worth the money,’ said Raul. The former captain was both villain and victim of Madrid’s dressing room politics during a 13-year stay.
Bale will soon learn that those waiting for him to fall are not always doing so from outside the club.
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