Bale is Wales' 'best ever sportsman' and WC qualification is years in the making

For the first time since 1958, Wales will take part in a World Cup as they got the better of Ukraine, winning 1-0 in a nerve-wracking play-off tie.

Of course, Bale had a hand in the decisive moment as his free-kick was diverted into the Ukraine net by Andriy Yarmolenko.

It's been given as a Yarmolenko own goal and the win was a superb team performance by Wales - Wayne Hennessey making a number of top saves to keep the Dragons ahead.

But talkSPORT's Dean Saunders issued some special praise for Wales' star man.

An emotional Saunders said moments after Wales' place in Qatar was sealed: "75 times I've sung that national anthem, 75 times. We never qualified for anything but the fans followed us everywhere. They were in Poland for a friendly knowing we were putting a B team out…

"Our fans, it's just getting bigger and bigger and bigger, girls and boys playing football…

"Gareth Bale, honestly, I know he's in a team but he's single-handedly put our football team on the map."

Asked if Bale is Wales' greatest ever sportsman, Saunders said: "Yeah, without a shadow of a doubt.

"We've had great players like Ryan Giggs, Ian Rush and Mark Hughes but Bale's won five Champions Leagues - every game we play he makes an impact.

"The best ever story, ever is when I was assistant and John Toshack was manager, he's watching Bale take free-kicks and he's whacking the free-kicks over the mobile walls and Toshack's going 'Dean, Dean! Get him in, he's going to break his foot. He can't be kicking the ball like that.'

"Gareth and I laughed and Toshack goes to me after, 'What's he doing kicking a ball like that? He's got his foot up, he's going to break his ankle.'

"We'll never have a player like him ever again."

Wales fans will no doubt descend on Qatar in their masses with generations of Welsh football fans yet to experience a World Cup finals.

Rob Page will be in charge when the tournament rolls around in November but this is something that's been in the makings from Wales managers dating back over ten years.

Saunders added: "He's played a big part, John Toshack. He gave all these players 50 caps before they were 25. That was his plan - Brian Flynn took the under-17s, under-19s and under-21s, he managed all three teams and Tosh told him to keep sending him his best players.

"There were no arguments, Tosh would put them in the team and he said, 'These players will get battered in Germany but they'll learn… we keep stumbling from tournament to tournament failing, the only chance we've got is if we bring all these lads together and they all get 50 caps.'

"John Toshack's a really clever man, Brian Flynn's been brilliant and then Gary Speed took over and pushed them on again with his new ideas.

"This is what's happened now, it's all down to them."