Hotspur HQ
Fansided

Tottenham: Bale Quietly Scored 200th Career Goal or Did He?

By Aaron Coe

LINZ, AUSTRIA - DECEMBER 03: Son Heung-Min of Tottenham Hotspur celebrates with Gareth Bale and Giovani Lo (Photo by Alexander Hassenstein/Getty Images)
LINZ, AUSTRIA - DECEMBER 03: Son Heung-Min of Tottenham Hotspur celebrates with Gareth Bale and Giovani Lo (Photo by Alexander Hassenstein/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit

Gareth Bale scored his second goal for Tottenham this season with his penalty right at the halftime whistle versus LASK, it may have been his 200th career goal.

The fanfare associated with Harry Kane’s 200th career goal made it a special occasion for the Tottenham Hotspur forward. However, now only weeks later, Gareth Bale scored what was said to be his 200th goal and no one seemed to bat an eye, least of all Bale. Given the goal seems to have been his 201st or maybe his 183, does it even matter?

Did Bale Know?

Gareth Bale was given to the media following the draw with LASK midweek. Right at the top of the interview – see the video below – Bale was asked about scoring his 200th career goal. Bale looked a bit surprised and said that no he “wasn’t aware of it, but yeah obviously it is nice to get 200 goals, it is another milestone you can look back on in the future”.

Bale seemed surprised, whether it was because he knew he had already achieved the feat or really was not that close, we do not know. What we do know is that Bale quickly changed the subject. Following in the team spirit José Mourinho is instilling in every Tottenham Hotspur, Bale quickly moved on, noting that it was nice to get the goal, but “obviously” we wanted to get the win the match.

Bale was also asked about ‘snatching’ the ball to get to take the penalty, which the Welshman may not have fully agreed with. Bale said, that “before the game it was between me and Sonny and he happened to give me the ball, so I was happy to take it”. Not sure being handed the ball by your teammate is snatching it, but regardless Bale dispatched the spot kick and got Spurs the goal.

What is Really 200?

The interesting part about this is that Bale did not know it was his 200th goal and frankly we have heard nothing else about it being his 200th career goal, which got us thinking, was it. Well, it depends on where you look. If you go to transfermrkt.com, what you find is that the penalty was Bale’s 168th career, first team club goal. Add that to 33 for Wales and you get 201. So, we missed the 200th? Not so fast my friend.

The odd part is if you check other sources, you get different numbers. According to Whoscored.com Bale has only 150 club goals, added to the 33 from Wales and he is well short of 200. According to Fbref.com Bale has 155 club goal, plus 33 for Wales still leaves us short. So how many goals does Gareth Bale have? The one thing everyone can seem to agree on is 33 for Wales, but beyond that, maybe he did score 200, a few weeks ago, or maybe he will score 200 later in 2021.

Heck, maybe we can celebrate Bale scoring 200 three times! I think we will all just settle for celebrating some Gareth Bale goals period, no matter how many he has in his career. Afterall if Bale does not know how many he has scored, should it matter to us? What should matter, is Arsenal on Sunday, which like Gareth Bale himself, we are “looking forward to”.