He's fighting for his place in the team
Back in 2013, if someone had told you that Gareth Bale would be a squad rotation player at Real Madrid, after the season he had just had at Spurs, you'd have laughed at them. His prolific form earned him a move to the Bernabéu and it was fully deserved. A lot was made of the transfer fee but as we have seen since then, the market does not make any kind of sense.
Bale has not been bad at Madrid, but he hasn't quite lived up to the sky high expectations. Injuries have played their part, of course, ruling him out of a lot of games. His overall game as suffered slightly as a result, but he has still just about justified his fee by scoring hugely important goals. In his first season, he scored winners in both the Copa Del Rey and Champions League finals.
Now, he stands behind Isco, Marco Asensio and sometimes Lucas Vazquez in the queue to play in attacking midfield behind Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema, restricted to starting matches only sometimes. Luckily for him, Zinedine Zidane rotates his side a lot, especially when there is a Champions League final around the corner.
He started tonight against Celta Vigo in Madrid's penultimate league game this season, and showed the quality we all know he had as he put the hosts 2-0 up after just half an hour. The turn inside and emphatic finish are Bale's signature moves and there are very few players in the world better at executing them.
Enjoy the goal in all its glory.
https://twitter.com/aliness96/status/995630521685303298
