‘Wales. Golf. Madrid. In that order.’ Where did Gareth Bale’s slogan come from?
The proud Welshman has said his goodbyes to Real Madrid, but will be remembered by many for celebrating with that famous flag with those words.
“Gareth Bale celebrated with a flag that read ‘Wales. Golf. Madrid. In that order’.”
“Los Blancos unhappy with Bale antics.”
“Bale pokes fun at critics.”
“Welshman to receive hostile reception at the Bernabéu.”
“Real Madrid teammates laugh off flag dancing.”
Numerous headlines followed in the wake of Spanish tabloid sports show El Larguero’s interview with Pedja Mijatovic in late October 2019, and the subsequent flag that was designed and displayed by Welsh fans during the international break that followed. As more and more news reports then surfaced, though, the name of the former Montenegrin and Real Madrid player began to be omitted, as the ownership of the quote moved seamlessly on to the supporters of the Red Dragons.
Bale’s ‘in that order’ origins
But as we at AS Towers reflected on the story at that time, and perused the original interview, we realised that Mijatovic may not be entirely to blame for the phrase. And we might have made a slight mistake ourselves contributing to its birth.
Our original translation of that interview segment was as follows:
“...But to have someone like that at the club, who they say isn’t integrated and has other, more important worries than his own team and his club... the first thing he thinks about is Wales, then golf and after that, Real Madrid. I haven’t spoken to him but that’s how he comes across...”
Mijatovic had already made it clear earlier in the talk that he didn’t know Bale personally and that he was just piecing together various comments that he’d heard. So yes, it was his opinion, right or wrong, and it’s one that the Welshman has never, as far as I’m aware clearly refuted. But what about the ‘IN THAT ORDER’ line that was used on the now-famous flag, and in many copies, retorts and memes that have been devised since the furore began? We trace that back to a simple, mainly innocent, tweet.
As you’ll see in our tweet above that accompanied the translated interview on 29 October 2019, we added ‘in that order’ to add some emphasis to the opinion of Mijatovic. Those three words should, however, have fallen outside the quote marks.
Needless to say, the six words were, understandably, bundled together and went off to live a life of their own. We promised then and continue to be much more careful... Sorry!
[Story adapted from original article in Nov 2019]