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20th Mar 2016

VIDEO: Gareth Bale overtakes Gary Lineker to make La Liga history

Nooruddean Choudry

What a phenomenal achievement.

Gareth Bale’s time at Real Madrid has been punctuated by constant stories that either he is unhappy, the club are unhappy, the fans are displeased, or perhaps most pertinently his agent’s phone fingers are restless.

But the mercurial Welshman has consistently stressed that he’s extremely content at the Bernabeu. He has continued to do exactly what he’s always done – work extremely hard to improve himself as both a footballing technician and a physical specimen.

https://twitter.com/revistadelaliga/status/711658754656174080?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

On Sunday he scored in Real’s 4-0 thrashing of Sevilla to make history and achieve a level of vindication many assumed beyond him. It was his 43rd goal in the famous white shirt, meaning he overtook Gary Lineker’s 42 goals for Barcelona.

Bale managed the feat in just 75 appearances, compared to Lineker’s total taking 104 games. Although in fairness to the England man, manager Johan Cruyff did tend to play him out wide in his final season at Camp Nou.

Lineker was extremely gracious about Bale overtaking his 27-year-old record, and congratulated the Welsh wonder via social media.