He's on the shortlist for 2012/13 UEFA Best Player in Europe Award. Catchy name for the award, by the way. The 10 man list is: Gareth Bale (Tottenham Hotspur) Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid) Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Paris Saint-Germain) Robert Lewandowski (Borussia Dortmund) Lionel Messi (Barcelona) Thomas Muller (Bayern Munich) Franck Ribery (Bayern Munich) Arjen Robben (Bayern Munich) Bastian Schweinsteiger (Bayern Munich) Robin van Persie (Manchester United) It's a great achievement for a player who was previously called a "one trick pony" who'd only ever had "a couple of good games" to be considered one of the top 10 footballers in Europe
Fair play to him. Reckon he comes in about third or fourth on that list. Behind Messi, Ronaldo, and possibly Van Persie.
First two, agreed, but Bale is way better than RVP. He can defend, he can play left wing, right wing, through the middle and as striker, he has superb ball-control and can dictate the pace of a game, he has the skill to beat players on mazey-runs, he has sublime technique and can score wonder-goals, and he is superb at set-pieces. Did I leave anything out?
It's got to go to a Bayern player, surely. Their annihilation of Barca was immense and they won everything. Ribery was awarded Bundesliga Player of the Year recently, so perhaps he deserves this, too? Nice to see Bale being given more plaudits, though.
NBC thinks Bale is perfect for their market. So do I. It'll be interesting to see how this pans out. If things go well, lots of people will realize that a dramatic late goal is the most exciting thing in sport(s). Also interesting they've made Bale yelling the central image in their campaign. (It's also the first and last shot of the last commercial I saw.)
Aside from my attempts to engage HIAG which are being cruelly chopped down in their infancy... I don't get this point. If a USA fan is going to be swayed by a poster advert to watch football then they probably have no actual clue about football. So in what way, from that poster, would anyone clueless to not already know, look at it and know which club he played for??
You can sort of see why: how many of the best kids choose to play defence? Scoring goals is hard - you only get one about every 40 mins on average, so you want your best players as far up field as possible.
Huh? You understand what advertising is, right? This shows off our prize asset and new kit all across America for free(presumably). Of course, in an ideal world it would have Tottenham Hotspur written in big letters across but there are plenty who will recognise it. If you can't see the benefit of having one of our star players promoted in the US wearing our new kit then we'll have to disagree because I'm not going to waste time explaining basic marketing principles to you.
Don't bet on it. Soccer to the Yanks is WAY down on the list of sporting interests, let alone them recognising which team it is or who Gareth Bale is. There are parts of the US where shooting Watermelons blindfolded is more popular than Football. David Beckham was probably the most marketable player in the PL, was plastered all over billboards in Europe and the US and he played in the MLS too and barely anybody from the US knew that he played for Man Utd. Your assumption that this advert is going to suddenly create a whole horde of Yank spurs fans is wishful thinking at best.
My assumption? Again I don't think you understand what I'm saying. I'm not banking on the reaction being "oh is that Gareth Bale in the new NBC Premier League ad? I'm going to start supporting the Hotspurs and buy their new kit that I can also see in this picture. YEEEE-HAW". The same way Hewlett Packard aren't sponsoring us thinking that legions of Spurs fans are going to go out and buy HP computers purely because they sponsor us. Positive exposure like this is only beneficial and the more Bale in a Spurs kit is beamed into their living rooms and visible on their shopping trips, or anywhere else in their lives, the better.
There are parts of England where rolling cheese down a hill is more popular than football....what is your point? When Becks was at his peak, Football/Soccer was nothing is the US. Now it is on the rise (partly because of him) and many Americans have at least and interest in the CL, if not the EPL. Whilst it may not be massive is the rural parts, I think those in NY will be both familier wih the idea of football, the kit manufacturer and Bale. The NY red bulls are a pretty big team so its not like his face is on a billboard in the middle of the Nevada desert.
