Tottenham forward Gareth Bale rounded off a remarkable season by doing the double at the PFA Player of the Year awards on this day in 2013.
Bale beat off competition from Luis Suarez, Robin van Persie, Juan Mata, Eden Hazard and Michael Carrick to win the senior gong for the 2012-13 campaign.
The Welshman also took home the Young Player of the Year accolade, making him only the third player in history – after Andy Gray and Cristiano Ronaldo – to receive both prizes in the same season.
“It’s a massive honour,” Bale said.
“To be voted by your peers is one of the biggest things in the game. It’s great to win it and I am delighted.”
Ronaldo scooped both the young player and the main award in 2007, some 30 years after Gray become the first professional to do so.
Bale claimed the senior award two years earlier after shooting to fame with a series of scintillating displays domestically and in the Champions League.
And he would go on to become an even better player, transforming himself into a goal-scoring machine that netted 31 goals in 52 appearances for club and country in 2012-13 before landing a move to Real Madrid that summer.
