Kiev: After a season dominated by injuries and disappointment at dropping down the pecking order at the Santiago Bernabeu, Gareth Bale showed why he was once the most expensive player in the world to win a third consecutive Champions League final for Real Madrid.

Bale came off the bench to score twice, including a stunning overhead kick with his first meaningful touch, as Real ran out 3-1 winners over Liverpool to secure a 13th European Cup in Kiev. Yet, despite the euphoria, Bale refused to commit his future to Madrid after being left on the sidelines from the start, just as he had for last season’s final in his native Cardiff. 

“Obviously I was very disappointed not to start the game, I felt I deserved it but the manager makes the decisions,” said Bale. “I have to sit down with my agent in the summer and discuss it.”

The Welshman didn’t waste any time in making an impact with an acrobatic bicycle kick that will live long in the memory as it looped over the helpless Loris Karius, on a miserable night for the German goalkeeper. 

Karius had been at fault for Karim Benzema’s opener just after half-time, and he then spilled Bale’s 30-yard strike into his own net seven minutes from time to seal Liverpool’s fate. 

“The best thing I have been doing is to come on and make an impact. I certainly did (that),” added Bale.

“I just remember Marcelo clipping ball in, it was kind of at right height to give it a go and it was great to get the connection.” 

The 28-year-old has now won four Champions League winner’s medals in five seasons since moving to Madrid. And his wonder strike brought back memories of Zidane’s own magnificent volleyed winner to earn Madrid the Champions League title against Bayer Leverkusen at Hampden Park in 2002.

That even one of the greatest players of all-time reacted with such wonder at Bale’s brilliance on the touchline was testament to a strike worthy of winning any final.

Bale has been linked with a return to the Premier League after growing frustrated by his lack of opportunities in the biggest games. He started just one of Real’s seven knock-out matches in the Champions League. In the one he did, he was hooked at half-time by Zidane as Juventus threatened to come back from a 3-0 first-leg deficit at the Bernabeu in the second leg of the quarter-finals. 

“I need to be playing week in, week out and that has not happened this season. “I had an injury five, six weeks in but I’ve been fit ever since.” 

Meanwhile, Zidane was one of the all-time greats as a player, and he now merits consideration as one of the game’s great managers.

Less than two and a half years after being promoted from his position as coach of Real’s second team to his first managerial role at the highest level, the Frenchman has become only the third coach in the history of the game to lift the European Cup three times. 

Leaving behind contemporaries Jose Mourinho and Pep Guardiola, Zidane has equalled former Liverpool manager Bob Paisley and Carlo Ancelotti, the man he used to serve as an assistant. 

“I need to congratulate the players as it is not at all easy what they are doing,” Zidane said after the game in the Ukrainian capital. 

“This is the business. There are no words for it. That is what this squad is all about. They have no limit to what they can do.”   AFP