Real Madrid: Is Gareth Bale a Modern-Day Didi?
Real Madrid's Welsh right-forward Gareth Bale, 25, is a luxury toy whose value has depreciated in his second season.
With each Spanish expletive spitefully hurled at Bale, surely it is only a matter of time before he values happiness over money.
If Bale says: "No mas," it would mirror how Didi ended his drama-filled, erratic and tense stint at Real Madrid.
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Down Goes Didi
"Your moment will come, kid," Didi said. "Just relax and keep the weight off that knee."
The kid? Pele.
Recounting the exceedingly high football IQ of Didi, Pele paid homage to his mentor in his book Why Soccer Matters, co-written by Brian Winter:
"[Didi] believed that because of my age [17 years old], no one would really pay attention to me—they might even forget about me entirely. I was a boy no one needed to fear; and sure enough, the defenders' attention seem to fade as the game went on.
Didi was like a great conductor, and I was the young soloist whose moment was yet to come.
... [Didi] always showed a quiet and kind of eerily unshakeable faith in my ability ... I'll always be grateful to [him] for—among his many, many feats at the 1958 [FIFA] World Cup—helping me to keep my feet on the ground when I was still hurt.
"
When Didi passed away in 2001, Pele reminded the footballing world of how revolutionary his compatriot, who acted as his "older brother" on the field, was.
"[Didi] invented a lot of important moves, like the [dipping free-kick] and the [instep] pass," Pele said, per BBC Sport. "For him, playing football was as easy as peeling an orange."
The closest footballer Peru has to Pele is Teofilo Cubillas, scorer of 10 goals in three FIFA World Cups, and he attributed his exponential improvement to Didi, who transitioned from player to coach.
"Didi was responsible for my free-kicks and shooting," Cubillas said, per FIFA's website. "[He turned] me from a right-footed player into a two-footed player."
Before scoring goals for Rangers, coaching Scotland at the 1986 FIFA World Cup, turning Manchester United into a juggernaut and receiving the honorific of Sir, Alex Ferguson was a 17-year-old hopeful at Glasgow club Queen's Park.
He was in awe of Didi's greatness during the 1958 FIFA World Cup.
Forty-four years later, Jim O'Neill at Goldman Sachs compiled a report on football economics in the lead-up to the 2002 FIFA World Cup.
Providing comments unrelated to finance, there was one inconspicuous sentence from Ferguson.
It demonstrated the indelible mark Didi left on Ferguson's mind: "The Brazilian captain and inspiration of the 1958 FIFA World Cup team—[a] truly beautiful footballer."
When you scroll through Real Madrid's football legends and sort the list out by surnames starting with the letter "D", there are five players:
- Alfredo Di Stefano.
- Luis del Sol.
- Pedro De Felipe.
- Rogelio Dominguez.
- Vicente del Bosque.
Didi would have been there if the late great Di Stefano's transfer to Barcelona had been ratified.
Francoist suits pressured then-Barcelona president Enric Marti Carreto to relinquish Di Stefano, according to Narcis de Carreras, who was Marti's right-hand man during the transfer saga.
"Marti even had a call from a high-level civil servant from the Ministry of Commerce who said to him: 'Up until now you've had no problems with the Institute of Foreign Currency," Carreras said, per El Pais (h/t Sid Lowe's book Fear and Loathing in La Liga). "But if you persist with Di Stefano, we don't know what might happen [to you]'."
Barcelona forfeited their right to share Di Stefano with Real Madrid, a decision the Catalan club described as: "A strange federative manoeuvre with Francoist backing."
Playing 510 games for Real Madrid from 1953-64, Di Stefano led Los Blancos to 18 trophies, including five European Cups in a row.
Bossing proceedings, Di Stefano was "more or less [a] benevolent despot" towards his team-mates, per Brian Glanville's book Champions of Europe.
Possessing David O. Russell's blunt man-management, Michael Jordan's unhinged competitiveness and Steve Jobs' control-freak personality, Di Stefano was the leading man at Real Madrid—everyone else played a supporting role.
Arriving at Real Madrid in 1959, Didi one-upped Di Stefano.
Introducing FIFA World Cup winner Didi—it was the only accolade never bestowed on Di Stefano.
Taking advantage of his demagogue status, Di Stefano was in self-preservation mode as he ruthlessly suppressed Didi.
It was an "act of jealousy" from Di Stefano, who accused Didi of failing "to embody the spirit of [Real Madrid]," per Brazil's Ministry of Sports.
Nodding in unison with Di Stefano, their hero, the Real Madrid fans turned on Didi, who glibly responded to the jeers.
"My shirt and socks would still be spotless by the end of a match and they couldn't get their heads round it," Didi said, per Placar (h/t FIFA's website). "I used to have to grab a handful of mud and smear it across my shirt."
Developing a maniacal addiction to winning, Di Stefano became devoid of empathy for his team-mates, as former Spanish national team manager Helenio Herrera recalled in Simon Kuper's book Football Against the Enemy:
"Di Stefano was the greatest player of all-time and I'll tell you why.
People used to say to me, "Pele is the first violinist in the orchestra," and I would answer, "Yes, but Di Stefano is the whole orchestra."
He was in defence, in midfield, in attack, he never stopped running and he would shout at the other players to run too.
He'd say [to them], "You're playing with my money."
"
Instead of showing kindness to Didi, Di Stefano went into attack-dog mode.
Like a Gennady Golovkin fight, the bout was short, per Ruy Castro's book Garrincha: "Didi thought Di Stefano was sabotaging him [while] Di Stefano thought Didi was lazy and didn't train hard enough. The situation soon became untenable and Didi asked for a transfer back to Brazil."
Unrequited Love
"I know many players talk of their desire to join the club of their boyhood dreams, but I can honestly say, this is my dream come true," Bale said when he signed for Real Madrid, per Marca. "I am now looking forward to the next exciting chapter in my life, playing football for Real Madrid."
A year and eight months later, Bale is finding out the hard way that a segment of Real Madrid's fanbase have memories alike to Ten Second Tom from the film 50 First Dates.
Gareth Bale: Tottenham Hotspur → Real Madrid: €100/£85.3 million (24 years old; 2013).
Real Madrid president Florentino Perez disclosed Bale's official transfer fee—€91/£78 million—disproving the British press' reporting, but it was peculiar given the clandestine nature when money changes hands in deals.
The purpose of Perez's revelation may have been to ensure Ronaldo kept his record as the most expensive footballer ever.
It is a tidbit into the relationship between Ronaldo and Bale.
Ronaldo may have felt the same way Jordan did when the Chicago Bulls were courting then-Croatian basketball phenom Toni Kukoc, per NBA TV: "That's like a father who has all his kids, and now he sees another kid that he loves more than he loves his own."
Ronaldo and Bale cost Real Madrid a combined fee of around €185/£158 million, so they should have an equal partnership.
But Ronaldo treats Bale as a frenemy.
By voting Bale as the second-best player in the world for the 2014 FIFA Ballon d'Or award, Ronaldo rates his team-mate on paper.
Yet on the field, the relationship is one-sided.
- Six out of the nine assists (66.7 per cent) Bale accumulated this La Liga season has benefited Ronaldo.
- On the other hand, two out of Ronaldo's 16 assists (12.5 per cent) have led to a Bale goal.
Whenever Bale tries to take over, he is lambasted for being detrimental to Ronaldo's scoring.
"Generosity is very important and if someone is being selfish then we will address it," Real Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti said, per Sky Sports. "We shouldn't blow this out of proportion. It's one moment in a football game ... relations between them [Ronaldo and Bale] and everyone are very good."
There is Ronaldo and then there are a set of rules for the rest of the team, a la Di Stefano's reign.
Celebrating a goal in Real Madrid's 2-0 win over Levante, Bale covered his ears, a message to the haters, while Ronaldo unveiled his true feelings.
Ruing his own miss and admonishing himself for not scoring, Ronaldo sulked rather than being happy for Bale.
Perez views Ronaldo as the present and Bale as the future.
However, Ronaldo has become "the first player in the history of Spanish football to reach 50 or more goals for a fifth straight season," per Real Madrid's website.
He is on course to emulate Roger Milla in iron-man durability.
Meanwhile, there are 10 La Liga players who have outscored Bale (13 goals).
| Player | Team | Goals |
| Cristiano Ronaldo | Real Madrid | 45 |
| Lionel Messi | Barcelona | 41 |
| Neymar | Barcelona | 22 |
| Antoine Griezmann | Atletico Madrid | 22 |
| Carlos Bacca | Sevilla | 20 |
| Aritz Aduriz | Athletic Bilbao | 16 |
| Alberto Bueno | Rayo Vallecano | 16 |
| Luis Suarez | Barcelona | 16 |
| Karim Benzema | Real Madrid | 15 |
| Jonathas | Elche | 14 |
Not only is signing Bale, who is earning around €412,351/£300,000 a week, as Ronaldo's successor a waste of money, it is insulting to what the two-time reigning FIFA Ballon d'Or winner has achieved.
There are parallels between how Di Stefano ostracised Didi to Ronaldo's passive-aggressive behaviour towards Bale.
When not specified, statistics via WhoScored.com.
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