Bale: I rejected England in one second
The Real Madrid superstar inspired Wales to
qualification for Euro 2016, and says that he never
intended to play for the Three Lions, despite an
approach in his formative yearsGareth Bale says
he turned down the chance to play for England in
“one second” following his heroics in helping
Wales qualify for Euro 2016.
The Real Madrid superstar scored seven goals in
10 games as Wales qualified for the finals in
France next summer, becoming the first Dragons
team to do so since the 1958 World Cup.
Bale qualified to play for the England through his
grandmother’s heritage, but insists he never had
any intention of switching allegiances despite the
chance he'd be more likely to play tournament
football with the Three Lions.
"I was really young at the time and my agent was
involved, but it was literally a one-second
conversation,” he told the Daily Mirror. "I just
said, ‘Stop - it’s never going to happen.’
"I’m from Wales and I love Wales. Everyone
knows how much I love playing for Wales. My
grandmother is English, but I’m Welsh and that’s
it. It was never an option.”
Wales sealed qualification for the tournament last
week, despite a 2-0 loss to Bosnia-Herzegovina,
and capped their qualification campaign in style
with a comfortable win over Andorra on Tuesday.
“It still feels like a dream that we’ve actually
made it to the finals. Every campaign we start off
saying we can do it, but there was a bit more
belief this time,” he added.
“A few of us have more than 50 caps, and
although the expectation went up and the
pressure mounts with every game, we just tried to
embrace it. As soon as we got the ball rolling, the
momentum just took us.
“We were keeping clean sheets, we were nicking
1-0 wins, it was the perfect campaign.
“We just adopted the mentality of winners and
we’ve proved how good we are. I don’t mean to
be disrespectful to the team of 1958, but I believe
they didn’t qualify outright, so we are the first
Wales team who have done it 100 per cent - and I
take a lot of pride in that.”
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