By Andrew Warshaw
January 10 – Once the world’s most expensive footballer and a five-time Champions League winner with Real Madrid, Wales captain Gareth Bale has ended his playing career at the age of 33, he announced on Monday.
Bale played a record of 111 games for his country, scoring 41 goals, and helped them reach the 2016 and 2020 Euros before leading them to their first World Cup in 64 years in Qatar in November.
A footballing superstar yet humble with it who never let success go his head, Bale was the world’s most expensive player when he joined Real Madrid in 2013 from Tottenham Hotspur for a fee reported to be €100 million.
In his heyday he had few peers, producing devastating runs and sublime individual goals with a gifted left foot.
He finished his club career by helping Los Angeles FC win the Major League Soccer title last June before deciding to hang up his boots.
A private person off the field who was rarely in the headlines for the wrong reasons, Bale said his decision to retire from international soccer was “by far the hardest of my career”.
“My journey on the international stage is one that has changed not only my life but who I am,” he said in a statement. “The fortune of being Welsh and being selected to play for and captain Wales, has given me something incomparable to anything else I’ve experienced.
“I am honoured and humbled to have been able to play a part in the history of this incredible country, to have felt the support and passion of the red wall, and together have been to unexpected and amazing places.”
Bale started out as a left back for Southampton, moved to Tottenham – where he was worshipped by the fans – in 2007 and had a brief second spell at Spurs in the 2020-21 season when on loan from Real. Only one player – former Real Madrid star Paco Gento – won more European Cup/Champions League titles.
“I feel incredibly fortunate to have realised my dream of playing the sport I love. It has truly given me some of the best moments of my life,” he said.
“The highest of highs over 17 seasons, that will be impossible to replicate, no matter what the next chapter has in store for me.”
“From my very first touch at Southampton to my last with LAFC and everything in between, shaped a club career that I have an immense pride and gratitude for. I move on with anticipation to the next step in my life. An opportunity for a new adventure.”
Although Bale didn’t always see eye to eye with the Real management, the club nevertheless described him as a “legend of our club and world football”.
“Gareth Bale has been part of our team in one of the most successful stages in our history and forever represents many of the brightest moments of the last decade,” the Spanish club said.
One of those moments was the acrobatic volley in the win over Liverpool in the 2018 Champions League final.
Yet despite all the accolades, there remains the feeling that his career could have been even more successful and that he has retired too early. He was too often prone to injury while his acrimonious relationship with former Real coach Zinedine Zidane led to him being frequently sidelined.
There was no better illustration of this than when Bale, in a rare moment of controversy while celebrating qualification for Euro 2020, famously held up a Welsh flag with the words ‘Wales. Golf. Madrid. In That Order’ written on it.
In a statement the Welsh FA summed up Bale’s contribution to his country.
“The term ‘legend’ is overused in the modern game, but there are few players as deserving of that accolade than Bale for the crucial part he has played in revolutionizing the image of the national team off the field and delivering success on it.”
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