Gareth Bale

Well this isn’t going to help stop any rumor mills. 

Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale have been painted as rival teammates who don’t get along ever since Bale arrived at Madrid in the summer of 2013. 

It makes sense, considering they are superstars in a team defined by its image that has been shaped around Ronaldo for the past 5 years. Gareth Bale is younger than Ronaldo, incredibly talented, and a British star. All of which make Bale a threat to knock Ronaldo off his perch as the alpha of Madrid.

Real Madrid have lost only two games in all competitions this season. They sit atop their Champions League group (one that includes Paris Saint-Germain) and they’ve plundered 33 goals while conceding only 11. Their combined goal difference in La Liga and the Champions League is a resounding +22.

And yet, such is the nature of the beast in the Santiago Bernabéu, all is certainly not right in Madrid.

Can Gareth Bale become the best player in the world? He has the potential, but just what kind of player will he be when and/or if he ascends to that status? What kind of person will he be?

Prior to last weekend's La Liga opener, Gareth Bale was videotaped in slow motion scissor-kicking a soccer ball into a swimming pool.

This likely wasn't a Real Madrid-sanctioned practice activity, but it was still pretty cool. The fact that this is news serves as a reminder (like we needed one) that superstar footballers live wholly different lives than the rest of us.

Maybe he should have practiced scissor-kicking a ball into an actual soccer goal on an actual soccer field, given Real Madrid's 0-0 draw with newly-promoted Sporting Gijon to start the La Liga season.

Serious question: do you think you could do a dizzy penalty?

Gareth Bale couldn't do it.

Apparently this is a thing now. Players spin around and try and take a penalty and it's hilarious. We don't know why they would do this, but whatever. Minor details.

Look! Liverpool players tried it too! We learned that Joe Gomez is likely a better dizzy defender than a dizzy attacker, among other things.

They say women are the taste makers of every generation. If that is true then maybe this video has something to do with why so many people took a metaphorical dump on Gareth Bale in the 2014/15 season. 

For anyone who follows Real Madrid, you’ll know that Bale was the greatest thing since sliced bread at Tottenham the year before he moved to Real Madrid, and for his first year at Madrid, that continued: he scored the game winning goal in the 2014 Champions League Final, and did this to Barcelona: 

Gareth Bale is really happy that Sony Mobile are sponsoring the Champions League.

In a new video, he's shown giving his support for Sony Mobile as the new Champions League sponsors before hitting a trick shot with a basketball (he kicked it, obviously).

Why he did this, we can only speculate. The shot was cool, though. 

It’s been set. The Champions League Final will be held in the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, Wales, and the Europa League Final will be at the Friends Stadium in Stockholm, Sweden. 

Cardiff's Millennium Stadium will host the 2017 #UCLfinal! pic.twitter.com/fcO8xLn7oq

Matchday 6 has come to a close in UEFA’s European Qualifiers with only four more games left for each country. After the first week kicked-off in the later half of 2014, the 53 nations split into nine groups have developed distinct leaders who will enter into the play-off stages. As of now, the leaders of each group are: Iceland, Wales, Slovakia, Poland, England, Romania, Austria, Croatia, and Portugal.