Gareth Bale

Lore & Background

Bale began his professional career at Southampton, playing as a left-back before moving to Tottenham in 2007. From the 2009–10 season, under coach Harry Redknapp, Bale transformed into a winger. With Tottenham, he rose to international prominence during the club's 2010–11 Champions League campaign. At the end of the season, he was named the PFA Players' Player of the Year, before earning the award again following his 2012–13 campaign that led Real Madrid to sign him in September 2013 for a then world-record transfer fee of £85.1 million (€100.8 million). Bale went on to be an integral player for Madrid, scoring over 100 goals for them. In his debut season, he scored the winning goal in the 2014 Copa del Rey final against rivals Barcelona and the go-ahead goal in extra time of the 2014 Champions League final, helping Madrid win the long-awaited La Décima. In 2015–16, he scored 19 goals in 23 matches in La Liga and assisted the opening goal in the 2016 Champions League final, later making the three-man shortlist for the UEFA Men's Player of the Year Award. He earned Man of the Match after scoring twice, including an overhead kick, in the 2018 Champions League final, and helped Madrid win the 2018 FIFA Club World Cup, where he received the Golden Ball as the tournament's best player. Bale returned to Tottenham on loan before playing his final season in Madrid. He joined MLS club Los Angeles FC in July 2022, winning a MLS Cup.

In Their Own Story

The floodlights at the Santiago Bernabéu hummed like a held breath. Ninety minutes. One-nil. The stadium was a single organism, 80,000 lungs pulling air in and out in unison. A corner kick. The ball whipped in, high, lazy, almost an afterthought. And then — a shape in the air. Not a head. A whole body, horizontal, a white number 11 stretched like a man falling off a cliff. The ball left his chest, kissed the underside of the net, and the noise that followed was not a sound. It was a pressure wave. In Cardiff, in a pub with sticky floors and a half-empty pint, a man in a faded Wales shirt slammed his glass down and screamed a name that was not a name anymore. It was a weather event. It was the sound the sky makes right before it breaks.

Reader's Guide

Bale made his international debut for Wales in May 2006. He had 111 caps for the nation and scored 41 goals, making him Wales' most capped player and top goalscorer of all time. He was the top goalscorer for Wales in the qualifying rounds for UEFA Euro 2016, scoring seven times; he played every match for Wales in the actual tournament and led Wales to the semi-finals, scoring three goals. He also played in Euro 2020 and helped Wales qualify for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, ending a 64-year appearance drought at the World Cup for Wales. He was named Welsh Footballer of the Year a record six times.

Did You Know?

• Bale was born in Cardiff, Wales, and attended Whitchurch High School, where his PE teacher restricted him to one-touch football and not using his left foot due to his superior skill.
• At age 16, Bale became the second youngest player ever to play for Southampton, after Theo Walcott.
• Bale scored his first league goal for Southampton with a free kick against Derby County on 6 August 2006.
• He won the Carwyn James Award for BBC Wales Young Sports Personality of the Year in December 2006 and was named Football League Young Player of the Year in March 2007.
• Bale's first Premier League win with Tottenham came on 26 January 2010 in a 2–0 victory over Fulham.