“Hardest Decision”
Gareth Bale ends his great career
1/9/2023 4:34 p.m
At the age of 33, Gareth Bale retires from the big football stage. The Welshman has announced via his social media accounts that he is retiring from the national team and will never play again for Los Angeles FC. The attacker leaves as one of the most successful professionals in club football. “After careful consideration, I announce my immediate retirement from club and national team football,” Bale wrote.
“I’m incredibly lucky to have been able to fulfill my dream of playing the sport I love,” Bale said. “It has really given me some of the most beautiful moments in life.
During his career, the Welshman first played in England for Southampton FC and then for Tottenham Hotspur for several years. In 2013 he moved to Spain to join record champions Real Madrid for the then record sum of 100 million euros. With the royal team, he won the Champions League five times, the Club World Cup four times and the Spanish championship three times. “In 17 seasons I have experienced so many highlights that it will be impossible to repeat them no matter what the next chapter has in store for me,” Bale wrote.
However, he also went through difficult phases. At Real he was sidelined in 2019, coach Zinédine Zidane increasingly relied on other players. Bale was frustrated and expressed it in the dressing room. “I still have three years of contract. If they want me to go, they have to pay me 17 million euros per season. Otherwise I’ll stay here and just play golf,” he is said to have told his teammates. After a brief return to Tottenham, Bale signed for Los Angeles FC and won the US league title.
The attacking star sensationally led the Welsh national team to the semi-finals of the 2016 European Championship. Last year Wales took part in a World Cup for the first time since 1958, in Qatar the selection of captain Bale failed in the preliminary round in the group behind England, USA and Iran. After the tournament, he initially announced that he would continue to be available to the national team. The decision to retire from the national team was “by far the hardest of my career,” he asserted.
Now he is “full of anticipation” in the next phase of his life. “A time of change and transition, an opportunity for a new adventure,” he wrote, without giving details.