Gareth Bale hopes to emulate Zinedine Zidane

By Joe Fish, Reporter | 03 September 2013

Gareth Bale wants to be mentioned in the same breath as Zinedine Zidane and Alfredo Di Stefano when he has finished his career with Real Madrid, whom he joined in a £86m move from Spurs.

Gareth Bale hopes to follow in the footsteps of Real Madrid legends after completing his world-record move from Tottenham Hotspur to the Santiago Bernabeu.

Following a summer of protracted negotiations between Spurs and Los Blancos, the Welshman finally moved to the La Liga giants for a fee of £85m on Sunday.

Zinedine Zidane had publicly revealed his admiration for Bale during Real's pursuit of the 24-year-old forward, and the former Southampton player has set himself a target of matching the achievements of the Frenchman, and several other Madrid greats, during his time in Spain.

Bale told reporters: "There have been the likes of [Zinedine] Zidane and obviously the previous ones, which were a bit before my time, like [Ferenc] Puskas and [Alfredo] Di Stefano.

"There are lot of players who have been unbelievable here, world class and legends of the game. Hopefully, I can become the player I want to be, and hopefully be in that league."

Bale is expected to make his Madrid debut against Villarreal on September 14, after the international break.