Gareth Bale completes journey from Spurs misfit to Madrid superstar

It was only four years ago that Gareth Bale was being labelled a jinx and a flop, and faced being offloaded on the cheap by Tottenham. Now he is the most expensive player in the history of football, with a price tag of €100 million (HK$1 billion) hanging heavy on his shoulders.

It's been a bumpy journey at times from south Wales to the Spanish capital. But the 24-year-old Bale will now have to get used to having the superstar status afforded Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, which may be alien to a down-to-earth Welshman whose long-time partner is a childhood sweetheart from their native Cardiff.

For the past three years, Bale has been wowing global audiences with his long-range strikes, swerving free kicks, defence-splitting surges and mesmerising footwork for Tottenham.

But it wasn't always that way. In May 2007, Tottenham paid £5 million (HK$60 million) to bring a spindly 17-year-old from Southampton, a club then playing in England's second tier who had signed Bale to their academy two years earlier. At that stage, he was a novice left back and prone to injury, but at the same time Wales' youngest-ever international and a player of promise.

His electric pace was already well-known, for he was runner-up over 50 metres at the national under-11s championship in Wales. In fact, he was a strong all-round sportsman, excelling at football and athletics in particular during his school days in a suburb of the Welsh capital and striking up a friendship with current Wales rugby captain Sam Warburton that lasts to this day.

He came from a modest background - his father, Frank, was a school caretaker - but he had quickly reached the big time with his move to Spurs.