Gareth Bale meets Welsh family who missed seeing him play in LA after Nation.Cymru drew attention to their plight

A Welsh family who flew out to LA to see Gareth Bale play only for the Welsh captain to be left off the teamsheet were finally given the opportunity to meet their idol today.

Nation.Cymru covered the story of their plight last week, and soon afterwards LAFC got in touch to ask what arrangements could be made for Gareth Bale to meet the family.

Mother Rebecca Timms took to social media to thank Nation.Cymru journalist David Owens for putting them in touch and shortly after LAFC posted a video of the family meeting the Welsh wonder.

Big thanks to @lafc @asoundreaction @jimmyjam562 @LafcPunk @LAFC3252 @GarethBale11 Crystal, Alanso, Seth, Max and everyone else who hosted us or helped to get us access to LAFC Performance Centre at Cal Tech today. Highlight of our year! #3252 #garethbale #lafc #wales #spiritof58 pic.twitter.com/q3EJNL3J2s

— Rebecca Timms (@timms_becky) August 23, 2022

The Timms family traveled from Porthcawl, Wales to watch @GarethBale11 play at the Banc… instead, they got the next best thing. 😉 pic.twitter.com/cfpzM7Etyz

— LAFC (@LAFC) August 24, 2022

“I have never seen the kids smile so much,” Rebecca told Nation.Cymru.

“It was brilliant to watch training. My husband coaches both my boys’ teams so he has a few new drills to use when we get back home.

“We were met at the gate and got the opportunity to watch the warm-up and training from the patio area. Gareth came to meet us after training, he couldn’t have been nicer, even signing the boys’ Spirit of 58 hats and LAFC balls.

“We are really grateful to both you, LAFC and the 3252 supporters club who gifted us welcome packs that included scarves and pin badges.

“We were so glad that we had the opportunity to meet Jimmy, who told us how a number of the original supporters have their signatures buried under the pitch. He was a fountain of knowledge and it’s great to see how they recruited the former president of the supporters club to act as the go-between.

“This isn’t just the highlight of our holiday but our year. We can’t wait to cheer Gareth on next month when we watch him play for Wales.”

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Rebecca Timms and her family had set out on the 5,339 mile trip from Wales to Los Angeles with the prospect of seeing Gareth Bale playing for his new club LAFC set to be the highlight of their trip.

The family of four from Porthcawl hedged their bets with tickets for the game against DC United, hoping they would be lucky and see their Welsh hero in full flight.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t until the family, who are all Cardiff City fans, were inside the stadium that they discovered that not only Bale wasn’t playing, he wasn’t on the bench.

“We were totally gutted,” said Rebecca. “We only realised when the boys were hanging over the railing waiting for him to come out of the players’ entrance.

“The boys had a Welsh flag hoping to get Gareth’s attention when he came on the pitch.

“Sadly it wasn’t meant to be, but the boys had a high five from Chiellini, not quite Bale – but they were impressed.”

@lafc having the best time! @GarethBale11 wish you were playing! pic.twitter.com/vKT7w9lY8O

— Rebecca Timms (@timms_becky) August 17, 2022

Now, however the boys’ dream has been realised as they went one better and met the Welsh captain face to face, and even had their bucket hats and footballs signed by the man himself.