When people talk about the greatest players in the world, the names Messi and Ronaldo quickly come to the forefront of the debate. Little it seems would challenge the theory that the respective Argentine and Portuguese internationals are currently the most gifted commodities in the game.

Scratch a little further under the surface and you’ll hear the names Iniesta, Xavi, Pirlo, Falcao and Van Persie crop up.

Just recently, however, there has been a clamour for Gareth Bale’s name to be attributed into that very list.

Do you love Gareth Bale?

Heck, some (or should I say, Jeff Stelling) even suggest that Bale’s name deserves to be mentioned in the same quota as La Liga’s finest double act.

This is all rather remarkable when you consider that Bale himself was once considered almost as a laughing stock amongst football followers for his unenviable record of appearing 24 times in a Tottenham shirt without a single league win to his name (something which Match of the Day are only too keen to remind us about every now and again).

So, what changed? Well, for one, his role. Whether it was by luck, or indeed a stroke of tactical genius on the part of former Spurs boss Harry Redknapp, Bale’s conversion from left-back to a winger-come-forward couldn’t have been more profitable for club and country.

Equipped with raw pace, yet still withholding the ability to carry the ball at such an incredible speed and the strength to brush off even the most well-built of opponents, Bale has become one of the most feared attackers in the Premier League.

A second half hat-trick against Inter Milan in 2010 was his landmark moment (albeit in defeat). Gareth Bale had arrived. This was an exciting young wide player with a devastating end product that made world class full-backs look like amateurs (yes, you Maicon).

The current campaign has seen Bale excel as not only a left winger – but also as a central attacker drifting in between the lines of the opposition’s midfield and defence. And, with 19 goals in all competitions (at the time of writing, of course), the results have been pretty undeniably successful.

The question is, does this warrant Bale’s name to be categorised amongst those that I mentioned previously?

Well, as I can’t think of another logical metric, let’s compare. At 23 years of age, what has Bale achieved in his fledgling career? The answer (to date at least) is not a great deal. A solitary League Cup success in 2008 is the only club honour to his name – and even then he wasn’t a part of the matchday squad that beat Chelsea so whether he has a medal to prove it is another matter.

This record pales in comparison to Messi and Ronaldo’s honour list and goalscoring prowess at the same stage in their careers. At 23, Barcelona’s Messi was busy netting 53 club goals in a season and on his way to his third Champions League title. Likewise, Ronaldo had become undoubtedly the best player in the Premier League, helping Manchester United to a Champions League success during his 23rd year.

Three Champions League titles you say?

Yes, it could certainly be argued that Tottenham’s limitations as a team negate the possibility of those comparisons being legitimately measurable but the sentiment is there – both Messi and Ronaldo were quite clearly at a more advanced stage of their development as players by the time they were 23. Both were playing for an elite club in European football (no offence Spurs), both had become extraordinarily prolific goalscorers and both had significantly helped their side’s to major honours.

Only a fool would be blind to Bale’s talent as a footballer but to compare him to some of the world’s best is nonsensical – especially for a player who’s been privy to just one season in the Champions League and has never appeared in a major international tournament (and probably never will in fairness).

As he has been demonstrating in the recent weeks and months of the campaign, Bale is most definitely one of the most effective and valuable assets in the Premier League.

Does his name deserved to be mentioned in the same breath as Messi and Ronaldo? No, that would be silly. Only if Bale can sustain his form at the very top level of European football and become a defining member of  a club competing for major honours will he rightly be considered as “one of the best in the world” – and for that, maybe only a mooted move to Real Madrid or Barcelona will really provide us with a concrete answer.

For now though, we can only appreciate what is – alongside the likes of Robin van Persie, Luis Suarez, Juan Mata and Santi Cazorla – another sensationally talented footballer to ply his trade in English football.

If only for that reason alone, we must surely be grateful – even if he’s not in Messi and Ronaldo’s class. Sorry Jeff.