Gareth Bale lauds ‘incredible’ Southampton fans
Real Madrid star Gareth Bale reflected on his time at Southampton in BT Sport’s What I Wore series on YouTube.
The Wales international spoke about his playing career to date and reminisced on his strong time as a youngster at St Mary’s Stadium.
Bale progressed through the club’s academy and has gone on to achieve plenty of success after leaving Tottenham Hotspur to join Real Madrid for a fee believed to be worth £85 million.
He has since played a part in Los Blancos’ three consecutive Champions League wins, despite his less involved role in recent times.
Bale, now 29-years-old, broke into Southampton’s first team in 2006 and made his debut in the club’s 2-0 Championship win over Millwall when he was just 16.
He reflected on his first senior outing with the Saints and said:
I remember my first game, I was so nervous. I felt like I didn’t want to go out on the pitch, to be honest. I was 16 at the time, had been playing in the reserve team and doing well and, to be honest, I wasn’t really expecting to be called up to the first team.
Bale reserved plenty of praise for Southampton and the club’s supporters, hailing them as ‘incredible’. The Welshman said:
I remember one of the boys my age said “I’ve heard that you might be going to the first team” and I said “no, don’t be stupid!” and I remember just having the chat and training and it was surreal.
We used to train on the lower pitches on the other side of the training ground and we used to come back in early sometimes to watch them train and be in awe of them. To then be there was just one of the best feelings. You felt like you had made it there and then.
I loved playing for Southampton, the fans are incredible and I will always be in debt to them.