It’s only a mild positive, but if anything, the lack of fans at stadiums have made for some excellent audio content for those at home: from the shrieking of managers, the swearing of players to one another – and now this: Gareth Bale momentarily forgetting where he was and calling out to his players in Spanish following his goal against Brighton.
Gareth Bale’s debut return for Tottenham didn’t quite live up to expectations. He came on against West Ham right before his side gave away their three-goal lead to draw against their London rivals 3-3.
But on Sunday night against Brighton, he truly made his mark, scoring for Spurs for the first time since the last day of the 2012-13 season (a late, game-winning goal against Sunderland, for those interested.)
Jose Mourinho’s men found themselves on the backfoot to Brighton following Tariq Lamptey’s equaliser to cancel out Harry Kane’s opener.
But substitute Bale came on and buried a headed goal which suitably matched his fresh number nine shirt. The goal was also enough to secure all three points for his side.
But attention soon turned to what could be heard from Bale after he scored Spurs’ second.
After heading the ball into the net, the Welshman ran to the corner flag with his fellow teammates, before he could be heard shouting, “vamos!” – a Spanish word simply meaning ‘come on’.
It’s unsure whether the word came from a lapse in forgetting who he was playing for, or even if it was a slight nod – or dig – to his time at Real Madrid, where he won countless trophies and provided some brilliant displays, but was never able to win over the fans or even the manager, Zinedine Zidane.
Either way, it’s great to see Bale celebrating near a cornerflag rather than one which sits upon a golf hole.
The win sees Spurs climb to second in the Premier League table, while they are unbeaten in their last five league matches. With game results being so bizarre, anything is possible for the club who have not won a major trophy since 2007/08 season – the same campaign that Bale broke through onto the scene and earned his first start for the Lilywhites.
