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Column: Gareth Bale goes from forgotten man to unforgettable goal as Real Madrid wins Champions League final

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For most of the season Gareth Bale has been the forgotten man at Real Madrid.

Once the most expensive transfer in soccer history, he has become the most expensive substitute of all time, with injuries and his team’s poor start relegating him to a seat on the end of the bench. With Real Madrid in crisis, Bale appeared to be on his way out just four months ago, part of a rumored housecleaning that also would cost manager Zinedine Zidane his job.

But on Saturday, with time running out in the Champions League final, Zidane sent Bale into a tie game and Bale rewarded him with one of the most spectacular goals in the tournament’s long history, starting Real Madrid to a 3-1 win over Liverpool in Kiev.

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Bale added an insurance goal on a long-range blast in the closing minutes, closing out Real Madrid’s fourth European title in five years. That also took Zidane from the hot seat to a place in history as the first coach to win three straight Champions League crowns.

And he couldn’t have done it without Bale, the man he had banished to the bench.

“To live this and win three Champions League titles with this club and this team is magnificent,” Zidane told reporters. “It’s an unbelievable feeling and we don’t quite realize what we have achieved yet.

“We had a complicated season but to finish with this great joy makes us really happy.”

It may get more complicated before its get simpler. In the wake of the game, Cristiano Ronaldo, the five-time world player of the year, hinted that he, too, may have played his last game for Real Madrid because of a contract dispute.

“I am not saying I am going; in the coming days we will see,” he said in a television interview. “I cannot guarantee that I will stay at Real Madrid, but this is not the moment to talk, as Madrid have made history, but neither am I going to hide. It is difficult to be at a better place than Madrid, the best club in the world, but life is not just about glory.”

In February, with Real Madrid mired in fourth place in La Liga, the club’s management reportedly began contemplating a complete makeover. The team had gotten old fast; more than half its starters — including Ronaldo, 33— would be older than 30 before the end of the season. And though Bale, at 28, wasn’t one of them, Zidane found a spark by benching him in favor youngsters Lucas Vazquez and Marco Asensio.

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The team caught fire, losing just two of its final 17 league games. Along the way Real Madrid swept through the knockout rounds of the Champions League, eliminating Paris Saint-Germain, Juventus and Bayern Munich with Bale starting five of the six games on the bench.

His next start, it was whispered, would come next summer after he was returned to the English Premier League. Benched again Saturday, he didn’t even warm up with the other substitutes.

“I was very disappointed not to start the game. I felt like I deserved it,” Bale explained to BT Sport after the game.

But he was ready when called upon and four minutes after coming on for Isco, Real Madrid’s forgotten man scored one of the most unforgettable goals in the team’s long and storied history.

Karim Benzema started the scoring for Real Madrid six minutes into the second half, taking advantage of a mistake by Liverpool keeper Loris Karius to score a soft goal. But Sadio Mane rescued his keeper by pulling that back four minutes later, setting the stage for Bale.

The sequence for the go-ahead goal started with Madrid working the ball around the box to Marcelo on the left side. After settling the ball and taking a step to create space, the Brazilian sent a right-footed cross toward the penalty spot for Bale who, with his back toward the goal, leapt straight up and used his left foot to redirect the ball back over his head and into the net.

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“The best I could do is come on and make an impact and that’s what I did,” said Bale, who called the goal the best of his career.

His second goal came on another Karius mistake. Given way too much space on the right wing, Bale gathered the ball about 35 yards from goal and drove a long, left-footed knuckleball on target. Karius rose to meet it and got both gloved hands on the ball, only to see it deflect over his left shoulder and into the net, making Bale the first player in Champions League to score twice as a substitute.

“Will I leave this summer? I need to be playing week in week out. It hasn’t happened this season for one reason or another,” said Bale, who joined Real Madrid when it had nine Champions League titles and is preparing to leave it with 13. “I need to sit down in the summer and discuss things with my agent and take things from there.”

The first half had some history too, though not of a positive nature, with Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah and Real Madrid’s Dani Carvajal both leaving with injuries.

Salah, who set a Premier League record with 32 goals this season, exited in the 30th minute after landing awkwardly on his left shoulder when he was taken to the ground on a rough, judo-style tackle by Sergio Ramos.That was cause for concern for Egypt’s national team, which Salah is carrying to its first World Cup in 28 years.

But X-rays showed no damage to the shoulder or collarbone and the injury was later described as strained ligaments.

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Salah left in tears and with him may have gone Liverpool’s best chance at a European title because the Reds, dangerous with Salah on the field, sputtered with him in the locker room.

Five minutes later Carvajal walked off, also in tears, after straining a hamstring, leaving Spain to wonder about his fitness for its World Cup run

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