Tottenham's Gareth Bale is the newest name on the Icons roster. And after our first exclusive signing session with the 22-year-old Welshman last week in London, we now stock a fantastic range of his signed products. With his electric performances continuing to raise his profile in world football, the reigning PFA Player of the Year is enjoying another sensational season with Spurs. In such devastating form, can the man recently valued at £150million make fair claim to being the world's best winger?

Gareth Bale’s transformation from Tottenham’s not-so-lucky charm to one of the most coveted players in the world has been dazzling. After signing for Spurs from Southampton for an initial fee of £5m in 2007, he featured in a record 24 Premier League games without winning. Fast forward to 2012, however, and the Bale jinx already seems a distant memory.

Manchester City are among a host of clubs to have been linked with a move for Bale, and although the £150million price tag placed on his shoulders by Spurs chairman Daniel Levy is as much a deterrent for hovering suitors as it is a valuation, he certainly merits a mention among the world’s best. The Welshman has a future at the very top of the game, and Spurs are determined to ensure it is staged at White Hart Lane.

Bursting with pace, power and technique - as traditional wingers go - Bale's artillery is second to none in modern football. Real Madrid's Ángel di María runs him close in many departments, but, crucially, Bale carries a far greater goal threat than the Argentinian. Today, Bale's outstanding ability is plain to see, but three years ago few could have predicted such a meteoric rise.

After tasting victory in the Premier League for the first time against Burnley in September 2009, Bale only began to fulfil his abundant potential in the latter stages of that campaign, when he was named Premier League Player of the Month for April as Spurs secured 4^th place Champions League qualification. Having made a name for himself in England, however, it was the following season in Spurs' debut Champion League campaign that he was propelled onto the world stage.

Bale’s magnificent performances on the left flank against reigning European champions Inter Milan encapsulated all that is so effective about his game. His phenomenal athleticism and ferocious finishing landed him a stunning hat-trick at the San Siro and two assists back at White Hart Lane. After a nightmarish 180 minutes with a rampaging Bale, the previously burgeoning reputation of Inter right-back Maicon was reduced to tatters. It was a chastening experience from which the Brazilian has never properly recovered. “Everyone is scared of [Bale],” said his Spurs teammate Rafael van der Vaart at the time. “Maicon is one of the best defenders in the world, and he’s killed him.”

Spurs manager Harry Redknapp’s decision to move Bale from left-back to a more advanced role has proved the making of him. And his positional development has continued in recent months as he has regularly switched wings, and even operated centrally behind the striker. With licence to roam, Bale has thrived. After his brace against Wigan on Tuesday, he already has 10 Premier League goals to his name this season, more than any other midfielder in the division. A total return of 10 goals and eight assists is testament to his outstanding contribution to Spurs’ unfancied title challenge. A player of Bale’s calibre requires exposure to Champions League football, and Spurs fans can delight in the fact that they are on course to provide it next season.

At international level, Bale has scored three goals in his last three appearances for a resurgent Wales. He has also made public his desire to feature for Team GB at the London 2012 Olympic Games. Bale is central to a bright, young Wales squad looking to honour Gary Speed’s legacy under the guidance of the newly-installed Chris Coleman. After making his international debut at the age of 16 and 315 days, Bale’s name has already gone down in Wales’ history as their youngest ever player. As a nation, they have only qualified for a major tournament once, in 1958, but with a fit and firing Gareth Bale, the next decade could represent the best opportunity they ever get to replicate that feat.

Argentinian? Spanish? Dutch? No; the world's best winger is a Welshman.

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This week at Icons, we held our first exclusive signing session with Tottenham star Gareth Bale. Recently valued at an astonishing £150million by his club, the sensational Welsh winger is one of the hottest properties in football. And in the week he was voted the only British representative in the UEFA.com team of 2011, we are delighted to add the PFA Player of the Year to our prestigious roster of the world’s best players. View our full range of signed Gareth Bale products here, and read on to find out more about our signing together.

A team of three Icons employees went to meet Gareth on Wednesday January 25. In a van loaded with shirts, boots, photos and cameras, we departed Icons’ North London headquarters at midday. The location for our meeting was a conference room in a hotel in Chigwell, Essex, just a stone’s throw from Spurs’ training ground. It was in this hotel that Gareth first lodged after arriving from Southampton as a 17-year-old back in May 2007. He returns - four-and-a-half years later - as one of the world's best players.

Gareth was coming directly from training, where he had been preparing with the rest of the squad for Spurs' FA Cup tie against Watford on Friday night. His agent was first to join us at the hotel, and was soon informed via text message that Gareth would be arriving shortly after some routine physio work. He pulled up at 3pm, and after a friendly greeting and a round of handshakes, he sat down to begin the signing process. Gareth began by signing shirts (pictured below), before moving on to boots and finally photos of him in action.

Personable and relaxed, Gareth was a pleasure to work with. Despite a meteoric rise that has taken him from bit-part squad player to one of the world's elite at the tender age of 22, his feet remain firmly on the ground. Gareth's scintillating performances against then European champions Inter Milan in Spurs' 2010/11 Champions League campaign propelled him onto the world stage, but he is completely unaffected by stardom. Gareth was more than happy to chat all things football throughout the session. He took time and care over every signature, and was patient and professional from start to finish.

The session lasted just over an hour, and after one last round of photos, Gareth and his agent were on their way. We were left to reflect on a good day's work, and head back to the office to get the products online for our customers.

Gareth is pictured here with Dan and Nick, two members of the Icons team.

To view Icons full collection of signed Gareth Bale products, click here

And for the latest news on all our signings, follow Icons on Twitter @icons_football

With grace and skill in abundance, Glenn Hoddle was a wonderfully gifted playmaker and, in many ways, an atypical English midfielder. Icons Legend of the Week #13 was an inspiration to a generation of players for whom technique was more important than the ability to run all day.

Voted Tottenham Hotspur's greatest player of all time, Hoddle was a sublime passer and a beautiful player to watch. After 12 glowing years, close to 500 appearances and 88 league goals for Spurs he moved for a spell at French side Monaco, before becoming player-manager at Swindon Town and later Chelsea. He hung up his boots in 1995 and went on to become England manager in 1996.

Hoddle joined Spurs as a schoolboy apprentice in April 1974 following a recommendation from another Spurs legend, Martin Chivers. He made his first team debut as a 17-year-old, coming off the bench against Norwich City in August 1875, but it wasn't until February 1976 that he made his first start in the First Division. He announced his arrival in sensational style, beating Stoke and England goalkeeper Peter Shilton with an outstanding long-range effort.

The 1979/80 season heralded Hoddle's emergence as a truly top-class player. With 19 goals in 41 league games he was deservedly named PFA Young Player of the Year. His breathtaking skill, vision and eye for the spectacular were at odds with the traditional British philosophy of tireless running and gutsy determination, but in Hoddle Spurs had unearthed a gem. Equally adept with both feet, as a youngster, Hoddle was used in the centre of midfield and on the wing. He went on to make the central birth his own.

Hoddle was the midfield fulcrum and creative hub of Spurs' great side of the 1980s. In 1981 he starred in Spurs sixth FA Cup win, scoring in the Final and in the Final replay against Manchester City. The following year Spurs retained the FA Cup with victory over Queens Park Rangers and secured 4^th place, their highest league finish since 1971. Two years later, Hoddle was the driving force behind Spurs' 1984 UEFA Cup triumph, despite missing the final due to injury. He put in a particularly memorable performance in their 6-2 Second Round aggregate win against a Feyenoord side featuring Dutch legend Johan Cruyff. Cruyff was so impressed by Hoddle's showing that he went into the Spurs dressing room at White Hart Lane to offer him his shirt after the match.

By this time Hoddle was already an established England international, and before his move to Monaco in 1987 he had already won 44 caps and featured prominently in the World Cups and European Championships of the 1980s. In total he won 53 caps and scored eight goals during an international career that lasted until 1988.

Then Monaco manager Arsene Wenger was the man who took Hoddle across the channel to France. Ironically, the two would come up against each other in the North London derby as managers of Spurs and Arsenal some years later. Hoddle scored 27 goals in 69 Ligue 1 games for Monaco. He inspired them to a title-win in his first season and was voted the Best Foreign Player in French Football. His exploits with Monaco helped to significantly improve the standing of English players in foreign countries.

Hoddle has found himself at the centre of stormy controversies on occasion, and as a manager he never enjoyed the greatest success. But putting all that aside, his on-pitch achievements at Tottenham and Monaco demand not to be forgotten. Hoddle was the most technically gifted English player of his generation, and his exciting and attractive style made him a rare breed. At a time when Fabio Capello's England are being left behind by a supremely technical Spain side, they could use a few more players like Glenn Hoddle.