During the first few weeks of Leo Messi’s recent recovery from injury Luis Suarez drove him to training every morning. It’s hard to picture Gareth Bale car-pooling with Cristiano Ronaldo if the latter had torn ligaments in his left knee — the relationship just isn’t the same.
Suarez knew when to pick up Messi each morning because the two are in the same WhatsApp group. When Bale was asked if he had received congratulatory text messages after spearheading Wales’s qualification for Euro 2016, he made the startling admission that many of his clubmates didn’t have his telephone number.
Suarez and Bale face each other in tonight’s Clasico with plenty in common — both left the Premier League after being voted Footballer of the Year and won the Champions League in their first season.
But they have not adapted the same way and they seem to be in very different places now — the Uruguayan has his feet under the table while the Welshman is still unsure if he’s coming or going. Of the 35 goals Barcelona have scored while Suarez has been on the pitch this season, 22 of them have had something to do with the former Liverpool forward. He has scored 13 of them and when he hasn’t applied the finishing touch he has given the assist or won the free-kick leading to the goal. He has missed only two games.
Bale (left), in contrast, admitted this week: ‘I’ve not played as much football as I would have liked this season.’
He broke down in the Champions League meeting with Shakhtar Donetsk in September and missed four games. He came back just in time for international duty to play two full 90 minutes for Wales and then got injured again, missing a further four Real Madrid matches. His decision last week not to join up with Wales to concentrate on this game has appeased many at the club who were upset by what they saw as skewed priorities.
‘I feel strong and fit,’ he said. ‘My pace and power scares a lot of defenders which gives us a bonus.’
That pace and power was never more evident than in the 2014 Spanish Cup final when he sprinted from the halfway line to score a dramatic late winner against Barcelona. More of the same tonight could transform his Madrid career — a no-show will encourage Manchester United in their bid to bring him home.
Suarez, in contrast, looks to have found the place where he belongs.– Daily Mail