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SOUTH WALES ECHO
Welsh star follows in Theo's footsteps
by Katie Jones
15-05-06
Mike, Gareth and Gareth's two biggest fans
ALL mums worry about their sons leaving home.
But Debbie Bale's son was just 15 when he packed his bags and left Cardiff to live 138 miles away.
But then Gareth - who is tipped as the next Theo Walcott - was going off to live in Southampton Football Club's boarding house with the club's rising stars.
And while living in the 16-bedroom house in Southampton, Gareth, who is an international star in the making, shared a room with the England World Cup hopeful Theo.
As well as sharing a remarkable talent on the pitch, the two teenagers even shared aftershave as Theo would 'pinch' Gareth's Hugo Boss before visiting his girlfriend Mel.
Gareth, who has played for Southampton senior side and been picked for Wales Under-21s, is tipped as a future top teenage international star - but he still does the washing up when he comes home to Cardiff.
"He still fights with his sister Vicky about who gets to do the washing and who does the drying!" said Debbie, 46, sitting in the lounge of the family home in Velindre Road, Whitchurch, with Gareth's Wales Under-19s and Under-17s football caps proudly displayed on a coffee table.
"He usually ends up the worst off and has to dry. Like most kids he doesn't like drying!
"But he is very good and always helps.
"But he's still just my little boy to me.
"It's surreal sometimes to think his football career has taken off so much. He's been all around the world with his football, Cyprus, Ukraine, Switzerland and then in Estonia with the Wales Under-21s.
His blossoming career means he has rarely been home since he left for Southampton nine months ago. But on Saturday he was back with his family in Whitchurch before heading off to join the Wales Under-21s team for their match with Cyprus.
"He loves to have his favourite prawn cocktail when he comes home, so I make that for him.
"His friends come around and they play Fifa 2006 on the computer and have a pizza or sit in the garden. It's like it was when he was eight and they would all come around and play football in the garden."
Gareth become the second youngest player in Southampton club's history to play for their senior side, after Walcott, and he has been labelled a 'Rolls Royce' of a full-back by Wales Under-21 manager Brian Flynn.
And it's clear as soon as you step inside the family home that Debbie, Gareth's dad Frank, 49, a school caretaker, and sister Vicky, 20, a trainee teacher, couldn't be prouder of Gareth.
The front lounge is filled with pictures of him, right through his sporting career, from his time as a footballer at Eglwys Newydd primary school, to the time he was picked by a Southampton talent scout in a five-a-side game in Newport aged just eight, right through to his being picked for the Wales Under-21s this year.
"We're so proud of him," said Debbie. "He's loved his time in Southampton. He and Theo are good mates. They were always borrowing each other's DVDs and were planning to buy a plasma TV and eventually get a flat together before Theo moved to Arsenal.
"Theo used to pinch his aftershave before meeting his girlfriend. Gareth is really pleased for him and they still call each other regularly."
From the age of just three when he went to Cardiff City to watch his uncle Chris Pike playing for the Bluebirds, Debbie remembers Gareth had a natural talent.
Debbie said: "It was always football, football, football. He would go to see his uncle and be kicking his ball around at half time.
"Every birthday party was at my parents house in Ash Grove, which backed onto Caedelyn Park in Whitchurch, so he and all his friends could nip over the garden wall and play."
After he was spotted, Frank and Debbie spent five years taking Gareth twice a week to Southampton's training academy in Bath. Then, while studying GCSEs at Whitchurch High School aged just 15, he began travelling by train to Southampton one day a week for training, before moving there permanently in July last year.
Debbie admits it was hard but she knew he was fulfilling his dream.
Debbie said: "I had my moments, thinking, "he's only 15, will he cope being away from home?
"I went down to the boarding house and met the 'house mother' Julia who is on call 24 hours a day there, and met the cook and the cleaner.
"It was strange thinking that someone else would be looking after him but we still call every day.
"He's still always ringing to tell us his news or ask me to bring him something he's run out of.
"And we go to watch all his matches so see him about once a week.
"If your children were at home you wouldn't see them all the time.
"With Gareth being away, it's made our relationship better. We don't waste the precious time we have on little arguments."
And while life as a top footballer might conjure up images of Rooney-style parties and luxury, Debbie's not worried their son will be seduced by the footballing world's excess.
"People think he is on megabucks but he's actually on £90 a week, you can't quite afford a Ferrari on that!" said Debbie, a receptionist at Emyr Pierce solicitors in Rhiwbina, Cardiff.
"And he gets a £10 bonus for every match he wins, and £5 for a draw.
"He's very level-headed. He doesn't drink. He just doesn't like it. He has had talks with a pensions adviser and is saving his money. The most extravagant thing he's bought is a laptop.
"He is very generous with his money. He is always leaving £20 for Vicky and paid the deposit for her holiday in Magaluf.
"He gave me money for a coat and bought his dad a mobile telephone for Christmas.
"He will want nice cars and a house eventually but it's the football that's important and he wouldn't do anything to jeopardise that.
"I'm not saying he's whiter than white, he's a prankster. At the boarding house, when they're not training they've put mattresses in the shower and hidden pillows. They're just normal teenagers messing about."
And whatever the future holds, it's clear the family are right behind him.
"We hope he will one day play in the World Cup but while he could play for England, his heart wouldn't be in it. Wales is his dream team," Frank said. "Nobody knows what the future holds. But even if this football career doesn't work out and he ends up sweeping the streets we'd still support him as long as he was happy."
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