Bale can win Real the Champions League: former club boss

Gareth Bale has been backed to help deliver Real Madrid Champions League glory by the club's former president, Ramon Calderon, who termed the record-setting Wales international as a unique talent. Bale became football's most expensive transfer at 100 million euros ($132 million) after a long-running transfer saga that spanned most of the summer.

"Nowadays there is not another player in Europe or the world like him. He is strong, fast and scores a lot of goals," said Calderon, who was Real Madrid president from 2006-09. "He can help the team reach their aims of winning the Champions League, the Spanish League and any other titles." He was expressing his views in Gareth Bale - The Real Deal, a BBC Wales documentary that tells the story of Bale's journey from a teenaged talent in Cardiff to the most expensive player in football history.

Bale was on Monday introduced to tens of thousands of Madrid fans at the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium where he spoke a few words in Spanish, after passing a medical test earlier in the day. Calderon also sounded a word of caution over Bale and his world record £85m fee while citing the example of Zinedine Zidane, who was paid a record-breaking deal of £48m to switch to Real from Juventus in 2001. "In his first season Zidane wasn't approved [by the fans] and was questioned in November of that season," said Calderon. "After that he was one of the players most loved and appreciated at Real Madrid. The price that the club pay for a new 'Galactico' can be a burden. The people who attend the Bernabeu Stadium are very demanding."

It was under Calderon that Real set the previous world transfer record for Ronaldo from Manchester United in 2009, worth £80m.

Asked whether Bale could justify his transfer fee and wages of £300,000 a week, Calderon said: "We need to have a crystal ball to answer that. People said I was mad to pay £80m for Cristiano Ronaldo. But now everyone is happy. He has scored a lot of goals and helped us become much better. We have to wait for the results [to see if Bale is worth the money]."