Everyone knows that one kid in school who took P.E a bit too seriously.
But for the pupils of a certain era at Whitchurch High School in Cardiff, lessons must have been an absolute nightmare given that a future British Lions captain and a five-time Champions League winner were in your year.
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However, even Sam Warburton, Wales and Lions legend, reckons Gareth Bale was simply out of this world when it came to sport at school.
The two grew up together at the secondary school, where they shared GCSE Geography and P.E together not that he foresaw his classmate being involved in an £85m football transfer.
Speaking exclusively to talkSPORT, Warburton said: “At the time, if you said was Gareth going to be the most expensive footballer, you have no idea what that looks like when you are 15.
“And you wouldn’t know what a Lions captain would look like at that age! I wasn’t even captain of my school even.”
Warburton is an undoubted Wales icon, captaining them at the 2011 World Cup where Warren Gatland’s men led them to an incredible semi-final with a very young team.
For many, he was the player of the tournament while he also won the Grand Slam in 2013 before leading the British Lions to one of their most famous tours in Australia, which they won 2-1.
Bale, on the other hand, played for Southampton, Tottenham and then Real Madrid, who signed from Spurs for the record fee in 2013.
As well as winning the Champions League and Spanish league titles, his jaw-dropping overhead kick against Liverpool in the 2018 final is arguably the best Champions League final goal.
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And he honed his skills at school, where even as a teenager he left kids in his wake.
Warburton added: “You look back and you think ‘oh my god yeah’. I hear very bitter people say ‘Gareth wasn’t this, wasn’t that’.
“I can tell you now for the five years I played school football with Gareth, it was a joke how much better than everyone.
“I used to remember laughing at watching him play. Kids couldn’t get near him. So when you look back you think ‘oh my god, of course he was’.”
Bale’s speed was also a thing of wonder as he showcased in his debut season in Spain to win the Spanish Cup.
“He turned up to the Cardiff athletics championship and all the high schools would be there. And he would be racing someone who is the Welsh 1500m champion.
“Well, he couldn’t be too athletic cause Gareth turned up and battered him! He’s just so bloody quick.
“And we just laughed and said, ‘ah that is just Gareth’. But, my god, he was gifted. No one got near him in football, no one got near him in athletics.”
Football might not be the sport Wales are renowned for given the prowess of the rugby team, but even there, every kid is kicking a ball around.
“Football is completely different to rugby, the participation level is through the roof,” Warburton, who retired at 29 as a result of injury, explained.
“So for him to achieve what he has achieved, I think, is a far, far greater achievement than what I did.
“No disrespect to rugby, but football is the global sport and he has done a phenomenal job.”
Bale, like Warburton has hang up his boots, doing so as one of Britain’s most decorated footballers.
“You look back and it is no surprise, you couple that with his professional mindset, his diligence and mental resilience and of course he was going to make it.
“At the time, you don’t know that is normal. You look back, he was very abnormal, his abilities and his mindset.
“I always think he’s on a different planet for what he has achieved. I can’t fathom what he has achieved.”
Sam Warbuton is a Canterbury ambassador. Sam was speaking as Canterbury and The British & Irish Lions extend their partnership for the 2025 tour of Australia, launching the Origins Schools programme, marking the first official collaboration between The British & Irish Lions, Canterbury, and schools’ rugby.
