From Graham Thomas in Dinard
It is a measure of the global appeal of Gareth Bale that the first interview he did at Euro 2016 was in Chinese.
Not just the questions, but his answers too.
Bale has not been slacking on his Spanish lessons in Madid by sneaking off for sessions in Mandarin, though. His message to the 1.3 billion people of China was actually scripted for him and short enough to deliver straight to the lens of a camera.
But the requirement – part of a UEFA-run competition aimed at the world’s biggest market – underlines the kind of stature, as well as the demands, which the Wales player is now expected to live up to.
His Chinese sales pitch was delivered on Monday and yesterday the former pupil of Whitchurch High began his first English language press conference by fielding a couple of questions from kids at his old school, via a Skype link.
Bale – arguably one of the three or four biggest names at the tournament – then took questions from the media, ahead of Wales’ first major tournament appearance for 58 years.
Do you feel the weight of expectation?
No. I just want to go out and play football. I want to go out and enjoy myself on the football pitch. We all get on so well in this team – we are like brothers. We are all friends and we joke around and play together, but when it comes down to the serious business we fight for each other.
But we have fun at the same time. We want to enjoy it and when you enjoy your football you play your best.
Do you expect protection from referees?
I don’t really know. Obviously, you’d like to think you’ll get protection but all referees are different. You hope that they referee the game fairly – that’s all you can ask for, really.
What were your expectations of what you could achieve in a Welsh shirt?
Obviously, I imagined qualifying. It was one of my dreams to do so, but to make dreams come true is not easy.
I always wanted Wales to be in a major championship when I was younger – to be able to watch it with more interest and to be involved with it, now, is even better. I always had that burning desire to get to a major championship and to be here now – you just have to enjoy it, take it all in, and give 100 per cent.
Gareth Bale insists Wales are bonded by a fierce team spirit. Pic: Getty Images.
Is this a golden generation for Wales?
People mention the golden generation, but for us we just want to get on the pitch and do as best we can. It’s up to the media what they decide to call us.
All we can do is go out there, work hard for each other on the pitch, and try to achieve what we want to achieve on the pitch. Come game day, we will all be trying to win every game we play.
Around 30,000 Wales fans are expected to be in Bordeaux on Saturday. For you, how big a moment is this?
It’s a massive moment. We all know we have the best fans in the world who follow us everywhere, no matter how bad or how well we’re doing, they always follow us.
It’s an amazing achievement for us to be here and we hope to inspire the youngsters back in Wales to play football so we can have a better national team in the future as well.
It’s not just about us now, it’s about the whole process from the grassroots down just to try to inspire more kids to play football.
What do you expect from Slovakia?
There are going to be no easy games and we know every game is going be very difficult. Everybody who has qualified is a really good team.
But we know we’re a good team ourselves and we are going to try to enjoy it.
And as long as we give 100 per cent, you can’t ask for anything more.
What do you say to suggestions you are a one-man team?
No, it’s never a one-man team. For us, it’s a squad thing. We’re together stronger and it’s there for a reason – we don’t just say it for no reason. We all work hard as one unit – we attack as one and we defend as one.
When we lose the ball we all fight back to get it. People can write what they want, but we all know that we work very hard on the training pitch every day.
Gareth Bale says Wales must go home from France with no regrets. Pic: Getty Images.
What would constitute success at this tournament?
I haven’t really thought about it, but for us I think we want to go home with no regrets. If we give 110 per cent every game you can’t ask for any more.
Obviously, we’d like to win the tournament. Realistically, it’s very difficult – we know that – but we’ll go into each and every game looking to win and if we give it 110 per cent we never know how far we can get.
As long as we have no regrets, with nothing left to give, that’s all we can do and, hopefully, that’s enough to take us through.
How vital is this first game?
A good result is a win. We know that. It’s a cliché, but we take each and every game as it comes, we can’t be looking to England or Russia, we need to really focus on now where the points really, really matter. If we can get off to a great start, fantastic, but the main thing is we don’t lose.
We’re a very hard team to beat, we work together, and we will give it our all in this first game. We’ll give full concentration to Slovakia, and as soon as that’s over it’s onto the next one.
