Two months into his Spanish adventure, Gareth Bale understands one thing loud and clear.
Wherever he goes with Real Madrid, somebody will remind him how his heavy price tag marks him out. Warming up before kick-off at the weekend in Vallecas, home of Rayo Vallecano, the lowest-budget club in Spain'stop tier, Bale was welcomed by a banner, displayed by the home fans, which read: "We're poor but we're proud and we've got balls like fists".
Suburban Vallecas and the city-centre Santiago Bernabeu arena stand barely 11km apart. Yet Real and Rayo are First and Third World, economically. The combined cost to Madrid in transfer fees of the front three in their lineup, Bale, Karim Benzema and Cristiano Ronaldo stretches towards 220 million ($423 million). That is about 32 years of Rayo's current annual budget.
Rayo are the club who practically bit off the hands of Swansea City last year when offered 2 million for their then top goalscorer, Michu; a club where salaries for many players went unpaid for months and months during Michu's last season there; where the idea of a ground constructed with spectators behind both goals is a luxury postponed until deep into never-neverland. At Vallecas, the "Bukaneros", the hard-core ultras who put earthy anatomical slogans on their banners, look up the pitch only at a wall, the backdrop behind the opposite goal of a compact, ageing venue.
It was attacking the populated end that the men with balls like fists staged their comeback, to go alarmingly close, from Bale's point of view, to sharing the points equally between La Liga's Croesus club and the one without a spare centimo. Madrid eventually escaped 3-2 winners.
From where Bale is looking, Spanish football already seems nothing like the stereotype of a top division where all but two fixtures a season for its wealthiest two institutions, Madrid and Barcelona, are walkovers. He has, personally, just enjoyed his best week with Madrid, full of plaudits and gratitude from colleagues.
Bale had played for a full 90 minutes for the first time in a Madrid shirt last week at home to Sevilla. His first goals at the Bernabeu put Madrid 2-0 ahead by the 28th minute. It was a "crazy" night, said Bale, finishing 7-3.
At Rayo, the pendulum swung less violently, Bale again completing 90 minutes and establishing his return to match fitness.
Bale had mostly been deemed irrelevant to Madrid's inconsistent start to the season. In their biggest, toughest games - defeats against Atletico and Barcelona - he contributed little and, did not play the whole match. Since the latest two fixtures, Madridistas fete him as the motor of a rollercoaster that has brought them, over 180 minutes, 10 of their 30 league goals so far.
He scored two and set up two against Sevilla and assisted for another two goals against Rayo.
Next stop for Bale: Turin, and Juventus, in the Champions League tomorrow.
Bale already has a special status in Italy, thanks to his destructive, back-to-back performances against Inter Milan for Tottenham three years ago. Spanish football now has a better, first-hand idea of how devastating he can be.
