VIDEO: Sorry, Gareth Bale! Theo Walcott ranks former roommate second in list of Premier League icons with 'absolute legend' David Silva also brutally dropped

Bale is considered one of the most entertaining and dynamic forwards in British footballing history. At club level, he represented the Saints and Tottenham Hotspur on UK shores, before becoming a global superstar at Real Madrid, winning 16 major trophies in the white of Los Blancos before ending his career with a brief stint in Major League Soccer with LAFC. The 36-year-old is also well remembered for his exploits with the Wales national team, becoming their most-capped and highest-scoring player during the Dragons’ golden era which saw them qualify for two European Championships and their first World Cup in over 50 years.

However, these achievements weren’t enough for close mate Walcott to rank him as his No.1 on a blind ranking of Premier League legends for GOAL Global for Topps FC, despite being given the chance to amend his selections.

Liverpool’s Egyptian King, Mohamed Salah, was the first name put to Walcott to blindly rank. A little conservatively, he put him in the provisional position of second. Bale followed, who had to settle for third. Eden Hazard and Son Heung-min were next up, with Walcott putting them at fourth and fifth respectively as he waited on a name who he believed was definitively better than Salah. Last up was David Silva to take top spot, with Walcott describing the former Manchester City playmaker as an "absolute legend".

In a show of good faith, Walcott was allowed to rejig the order after completing the ranking blind. This was, however, not enough for Bale to take first place, which instead went to Salah. Nevertheless, the Welshman was upgraded to second, one spot above Silva who dropped into third.

Walcott and Bale are two of the finest products to ever emerge from Southampton’s famed academy, which has also churned out the likes of Adam Lallana, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Alan Shearer and Matt Le Tissier. In a 2014 interview, Walcott opened up on their relationship and how his fellow wing wizard loved a practical joke.

"I roomed with Gareth and shared digs with him right up to the day I moved to Arsenal [in 2006]", Walcott said. "He was good company but you were always grateful if you got back to your room unscathed when Gareth was around as he was a bit of a prankster. I had to be wary. He would do stunts like putting water on top of your door to try and soak you as you walked in, and silly things like that."

Though Walcott and Bale are close, they never actually played a competitive game on the same side. The former left for Arsenal in January 2006, only three months before the latter made his senior Southampton debut.

The duo found themselves on opposite sides of the north London divide when Bale turned down Manchester United to join Spurs in 2007. Though he initially struggled to make an impact at White Hart Lane, going 24 games without featuring on the winning side in the Premier League, he eventually developed into a phenomenal winger. In 2013, he left for Real Madrid for a then-world record fee of £85 million (€100m).

Walcott, meanwhile, became a fan-favourite at Arsenal, where he inherited Thierry Henry’s No.14 shirt and scored 108 goals in across a 12-year stay. He later signed for Everton before rejoining Southampton for the final three seasons of his career.