PORTSMOUTH owner Michael Eisner was full of praise for Gareth Bale after his exploits in the Champions League final.

The American wrote a very complimentary tweet about Saints academy product, Bale, after he had scored an outrageous overhead kick for Real Madrid, as they defeated Liverpool 3-1 in the final of the competition in Kiev.

It read: "Garett Bale’s [sic] bicycle kick amazing. Trained on South Coast of UK. CONGRATS Real Madrid."

This caused uproar on Twitter, with many people, especially Saints fans and the club's official twitter account, enjoying such a statement from the owner of Saints' fiercest rivals.

For starters, the very fact he's reserving such praise of Bale, who came through the Staplewood academy before departing for Tottenham in 2007, was enough.

But adding, 'trained on South Coast of UK' gave it a whole new dimension and Twitter lapped it up gleefully.

Madrid won their third straight Champions League thanks to a brace from Bale and another from Karim Benzema.

Liverpool goalkeeper Karius was badly at fault for the opener and the third, but could do nothing about Bale's sensational overhead kick in the 64th minute, which cancelled out ex-Saint Sadio Mane's equaliser.

Eisner's Tornate Company bought League One Pompey for a reported £5.67m in August 2017.

The 76-year-old is the former chief executive of Disney as well as president of Paramount.