GARETH BALE has surprised fans with his decisions when picking the ‘perfect player’ out of players he’s played with.
Bale was tasked by Sky Sports with choosing from the attributes of his former team-mates’ vision, body, left foot, right foot, ability to shoot and ability to tackle.
Given the former Spurs star spent nine years at Real Madrid, winning five Champions Leagues during that time, many assumed that the perfect player would be full of his Madrid team-mates.
Well, it sort of was, apart from a surprise Wales star inclusion.
Bale of course opted for Real Madrid maestro and 2018 Ballon D’or winner Luka Modric as the player with the best vision out of anyone he’s played with.
The two played together at Spurs from 2008 until Modric left for Madrid in 2012 and were reunited when Bale joined his former team-mate in Spain’s capital a year later.
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Unsurprisingly, Bale picked Cristiano Ronaldo as the player with the best shot he’s played with, with Ronaldo scoring 450 goals in 438 games for Los Blancos.
Casemiro took the accolade for best tackling and Toni Kroos’s long shots and crisp passing saw him awarded with the best right boot of them all.
Meanwhile Isco, who’s form could be described as mixed at Madrid picked up the nod for best control.
Bale gave himself the accolade of best left foot (and who can blame him given his repertoire of great goals?) but it was the selection of best keeper that took many by surprise.
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Rather than opt for the likes of Iker Casillas, Keylor Navas or Thibaut Courtois, Bale chose Wales team-mate Wayne Hennessey as his perfect keeper.
Hennessey has made just six Premier League appearances over the past three seasons where he has spent time as a back-up keeper at Crystal Palace, Burnley and now Nottingham Forest.
The Welshman was keeper during Wales’ rung to the Euro 2016 semi-finals in France and that was clearly enough for him to get the nod from his fellow Welshman.
His record for Wales was excellent in fairness, conceding just four goals over 10 games when qualifying for the Euros.
Hennessey would go on to surpass Neville Southall in holding the record for the most clean sheets in a Wales shirt.
His final outing as Wales’ no1 keeper would come at the Qatar 2022 World Cup where he became the only player in the tournament to receive a straight red card in a 2-0 defeat to Iran during the group stage.
The keeper, 36, has not formerly retired from the national team but his lack of game time at Forest has seen him drop down the pecking order and he is now out of Rob Page’s squad.
For now, Danny Ward is the country’s no1, despite losing his place in Leicester’s starting XI to Danish stopper Mads Hermansen.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
