Having flown in from Europe that day, Gareth Bale’s internal clock, as he stood in front of more than 22,000 fans at Banc of California stadium, read 4 A.M. Sandwiched between ESPN broadcasters Jon Champion and Taylor Twellman ahead of July 8th’s El Trafico — the instafamous derby between Bale’s newly-adopted LAFC and LA Galaxy — the five-time Champions League winner expounded on why he’d uprooted his family for a 12-month Major League Soccer jaunt in Southern California.
“This is a growing league,” said a bleary-eyed Bale, black Henrik Stenson shades tucked on the neck of a white long sleeve. “The best prep [for a World Cup] is to play games. I want to [make] my stamp — help LAFC try to win a trophy.”
The captain of Wales’ men’s national team, Bale recently engineered his home country’s first World Cup qualification in 64 years. After 19 trophies in almost a decade at Real Madrid, Bale’s strained time in LaLiga puttered to the finish line. Instead of returning to Tottenham Hotspur in England, Newcastle United or Aston Villa as rumored — or even his hometown’s Championship side, Cardiff City — Bale took a $30-plus million pay cut to join a club almost 6,000 miles from Madrid in a league with no promotion/relegation system.
Less than two hours later, the Welsh winger was shouting LAFC’s fight song through a megaphone, doused by teammates — including a pink pinnie-clad World Cup champion Giorgio Chiellini, who left Juventus after 17 years in June — following a 3-2 victory. At his introductory news conference, Bale…
Source : espn
