Real Madrid star Gareth Bale eyes fourth Champions League medal and admits: 'It'll be hard to control myself if I hit the winner against Tottenham'

• e-mail

It is Champions League time again so let's start with some trivia — how many more times do you need to win the European Cup, Gareth, before you become the Brit who has won it the most?

He isn't sure of the answer but he is sure of one thing: 'I know I'm the Welshman who's won it most times, that's the main thing.'

Ian Rush won it once, Joey Jones and Ryan Giggs twice. Bale is already on his third and if Real Madrid triumph next May in Kiev he will have equalled Phil Neal's 33-year-old record of four. 

Real Madrid star Gareth Bale is eyeing a fourth Champions League winners' medal this season

Bale could equal the record for a British player with the most European Cup wins on four

Real have been placed in a group with Borussia Dortmund, Tottenham and APOEL Nicosia

Bale is in relaxed mood despite the sweltering Madrid summer heat.

He has just surprised a group of local schoolchildren who knew they were coming to a sports centre on the outskirts of the city to be part of a Champions League commercial but didn't realise Bale was going to be here.

Some of the jaws are still dropped and the eyes still wide open in disbelief. They are an easy crowd. It hasn't always been that way in the last 12 months.

To listen to some of Bale's critics at the start of this season you would think those Champions League winners' medals fell into his lap while he sat watching from the sidelines. It's been conveniently forgotten by some that he got the winning goal in the 2014 final and was a man-of-the-match contender in 2016. 

Bale surprised schoolkids at a Champions League commercial and played football with them 

He re-enacted some of the key moments from his 2014 Champions League final appearance

Injury meant he was only a substitute in last season's final. That, and the emergence of players such as Marco Asensio and Isco — and Jose Mourinho's desire to take him to Manchester United — prompted a crusade among some fans and media to move him on, especially when it seemed Kylian Mbappe might replace him. 

Ultimately Bale never came close to leaving. In a summer when Neymar decided to leave Lionel Messi's shadow and, at the risk of winning less, become the undisputed biggest star at his club, Bale could have done the same by waving goodbye to Cristiano Ronaldo to be the king of Old Trafford.

'Well there's an argument for that,' he says of the win-less-but-be-the-star theory, 'but I think the main thing, when you look back on your career, is that you look at your trophies. In the end that's probably the most important thing.' 

Bale and Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho share a joke after a friendly in July

The Welshman scored the winner against Atletico Madrid in the final back in 2014

Bale picked up his second European Cup in Milan, and was a candidate for man of the match

He was only a late substitute in last season's final as he won third European Cup with Madrid

A Spanish League, a Spanish Cup, a Spanish Super Cup, a World Club Cup and three European Super Cups to go with those three Champions Leagues is some haul and he would not have achieved it had he gone anywhere else in 2013 or stayed at Spurs – the club he is reunited with in this season's group stage and for whom he still has a lot of affection.

'I started at Southampton so it will always have that "home" kind of feeling there but I grew up at Tottenham,' he says.

'I have a lot of great memories from my time there; some not so great as well but it was a big part of my journey. I love the club and still keep in touch with a lot of people there and the fans were incredible. I really enjoyed playing in those big European nights at White Hart Lane.

'It was a shame we didn't win as many trophies as I would have liked. I've spoken to Luka [Modric] about this. We were there or thereabouts to win the league and we kind of just dipped at the end. When you look at the team we had at the time, we feel that we should have won something.' 

Neither player picked up a medal, and Bale admits that Modric's departure in 2012 to Real Madrid was a factor in him following him a year later.

'We played very well together at Tottenham. Him being here was a reason why I came to Madrid. I knew what a good player he was. I think it helped me settle in a lot quicker. Having someone to help you is massive especially with such a big move abroad.'

There were times in his first couple of seasons that Modric looked for Bale on the pitch while others seemed to only have eyes for Ronaldo. Such office politics are a distant memory now. The squad's togetherness is another reason why they start this season as Champions League favourites but more of that later. What of the prospect of facing his former club? 

The 28-year-old signed for Real Madrid in 2014 in a world-record deal from Tottenham

Bale played with Luka Modric at Spurs and said the Croatian's move influenced him to follow

'I was in a meeting when the draw was made and my phone was going off constantly and I thought: something's happened!

'I remember playing against Real Madrid when I was still at Tottenham and Crouchie (Peter Crouch) being sent off after only 15 minutes and that killed the game for us. All my friends are still Tottenham fans. That is their team in the Premier League and I will certainly have a lot of ticket requests.'

There are mixed feelings that it will not be White Hart Lane – it's an advantage for Real Madrid but going back would have been special.

'It was that typical old style British stadium,' he says. 'The fans were on top of you and the atmosphere stayed in. It's a big difference to the new stadiums where it's harder to generate the same sort of noise.

'It's going to be a big miss for them but with modern football I suppose other things are taken into consideration, clubs have to maximize revenue and they can't just think about what arena makes for the best atmosphere for the players to play in.'

Despite all the success he has had with Madrid, the Wales international has several critics

Tottenham were terrible at Wembley in the Champions League last season but Bale knows better than most that big arenas can also become fortresses. You won't hear anyone at Real Madrid wishing the Bernabeu was a tighter, more compact ground.

'The atmosphere is not quite as on top of you but you can still make it your fortress. Your home is where you build from and you need to make it difficult for teams,' he says.

So how different is the Bale who goes back to London four years after his €100million move?

'I'm a different player of course I am,' Bale says. 'I've had to change. When you're a young player who arrives on the scene and starts doing well people figure you out and you have to find other ways to get past the opposition.

'So yes I've changed a lot but I can still remember turning up at Spurs from Southampton. It feels like a long time ago now. It's been a long and eventful journey from coming in as a left back to pretty much playing out on the right wing or at least up front, it's been a big transition.

'It feels like I got on the football ladder and kept climbing.'

He still says he has faith in his own ability and admitted he has had to adapt his game

That need to find new tricks has been cranked up further still by Zinedine Zidane transforming Real Madrid from counter-attacking killers to pass and move dominators.

'At Madrid we have a lot of the ball and in the attacking half there is not the space to run into. It's more about keeping possession and playing one-twos. In the Premier League you can be the better team and still get beat because it is so end to end.'

It almost sounds like he's missing the comparative anarchy of English football, there's little doubt it would better suit him than Madrid's newly discovered tiki-taka but it's also true that he has adapted like few before him.

Has Spain changed him to the point where he would indulge in the strange custom of not celebrating scoring against an old team? 'I scored against Spurs in a pre-season game a couple of years ago and I didn't really celebrate then,' he laughs. 'I suppose it depends on how you feel on the day. If it's a 91st-minute winner, can you control yourself? That's the question.' 

The auspicious rise of Marco Asensio and Isco has meant Bale has had to accept being rotated

Tottenham will start both their games against Madrid as underdogs but then so will everyone else that faces them this season. Strangely for the club that made their name – at least this century – as the Galaticos, spending massive amounts to always end up with the world's most expensive player, they have not broken a transfer record since buying Bale.

They have had three quiet summers and yet now have arguably the best squad in their history.

'Yes we're strong but ultimately we still have to do what we are paid to do. Everyone can say we have got a great squad but if we don't go out and perform, we haven't got a great squad. We know what we are capable of, it is just a case of doing it again and again and again.'

That relentless drive has been a big part of their success, so has been the acceptance of rotation allowing the new wave to come through.

'Everyone that has come in has done really well,' says Bale reeling off the names Isco, Asensio, Lucas Vazquez and adding Marcos Llorente – one who has not quite emerged yet but is tipped to be the next Sergio Busquets for Spain.

The former Spurs winger faces his old club in the Champions League group stage this season

'The manager has brought in [the rotation] and we have all bought into it. And knowing how sometimes you reach the end of the season and you are feeling the effects of playing 50 games having those few matches off does make a massive difference. It showed last season when we won the league and the Champions League for the first time in so many years.'

The clamour for young Spaniards Isco and Asensio to start ahead of Bale has intensified with the former's brilliant performance for Spain against Italy last week and the latter's wonder goals against Valencia two weeks ago.

Bale was brought in as Ronaldo's long-term replacement. Things have not really worked out that way. The Portuguese Peter Pan is still flying high and now there are young stars who want Bale's starting berth.

He doesn't seem perturbed by his failure to become Madrid's No 1, neither has he lost faith in his ability to remain in the first XI.

'I don't really look into things like that. Some people do, some don't. I'm not too bothered. I just want to go out on to the football pitch and enjoy my football. I want to do well for myself but I also want to try to help the team and win trophies. Just try to enjoy myself I think. That's the main thing.'

 And he admitted he might not be able to stop himself from celebrating if he scored the winner

Back out on the pitch with the schoolkids, Bale is re-enacting some of the key moments from his 2014 Champions League final appearance for the commercial.

He's just dinked one left-footed cross to the back post where a boy has nodded it home before wheeling away arms outstretched, stopping short of re-enacting the knee slide into the corner that would really have invoked Bale's famous goal.

His critics can say what they want about him in Madrid but the silverware stacks up.

He's ready to begin the journey towards that fourth Champions League this week and if he were to return to the Premier League in 2018, he would do so as Britain's most successful football export ever. 

Gareth Bale was speaking at the announcement of Nissan's three-year extension to its global partnership with the UEFA Champions League.