How A Boy From Wales Became One Of The Most Successful Football Players Of All Time
After an unprecedentedly successful decade spent with Real Madrid, captain of the Welsh national team, Gareth Bale has announced his move to LA FC.
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Bale has done one incredible thing after another over his 16-year-long professional career - including breaking the European transfer record, winning 5 Champions League titles, and leading his country to the world cup for the first time since 1958.
Today, we are going to look at the life and career, so far, of the legendary Welshman Gareth Bale.
The Early Years
Bale was born in Cardiff and attended Whitchurch High School. Here he played a wide range of sports alongside Sam Warburton, who would go on to captain the Welsh rugby team.
Bale was first spotted by Southampton at age 9 and joined their junior team in 1999. He continued to play for this team until 2006 when he made his debut for the senior team at age 16.
During his one season with the senior Southampton team, he developed a reputation for being a free-kick specialist. He scored 5 goals in 40 appearances.
In 2007, he transferred to Tottenham Hotspurs for £5 million. He signed a four-year deal with the team. He went on to score his first goal for the team on his second appearance. This goal was from a free kick.
It quickly became clear that as well as being able to score goals, Bale had an invaluable skill for creating opportunities and setting up with teammates. Bale was one of the fastest players in the Premier League and was showered with accolades whilst playing for Tottenham.
He played for Tottenham between 2007-2013, during this time he made 146 appearances for the team and scored 42 goals.
Real Madrid
In 2013, Bale transferred to Real Madrid for £85.3 million - this broke the world transfer record at the time.
Many were surprised that Madrid picked up Bale because they already had Christiano Ronaldo - but the pair work incredibly well at the front of the pitch.
During his 9 years with Madrid, Bale and the team won La Liga 3 times, the Copa del Rey once, the Supercopa de España once, the UEFA Super Cup 3 times, the FIFA Club World Cup 3 times, and the UEFA Champions League 5 times.
Bale played 258 games with the team and scored 108 goals. He also officially assisted in 66 more goals.
Two of his most famous career goals were scored for Madrid. Once was an overhead scissor kick that won Madrid the Champions League Final (again) - this has been voted the best European goal ever scored.
The other was at the Copa del Rey final in 2014, where he ran past the entire Barcelona squad to score the winning goal in the 85th minute.
Both goals are well worth watching today.
Sadly, after a series of injuries the Spanish press and the Madrid fans turned against Bale. Many articles were published saying that Bale was more interested in playing golf than football. This was helped by the fact that Bale was barely given any game time while Zidane was the manager of the team.
However, after announcing that he was leaving the team, Bale was given a standing ovation by the crowd as they celebrated his 5th Champions League win in 5 years.
In 2022, Bale announced that if his national team, Wales, made it to the FIFA World Cup then he would be looking to play football for at least another 4 years.
After months of wild speculation by the press, Bale announced that he would be moving to Los Angeles FC.
International Career
Bale made his first appearance for his national team, Wales, in 2006.
Soccer is not the national sport in Wales and the soccer team had not qualified for an international tournament since 1958. When manager Gary Speed took over, the Wales FA started putting their funds into grassroots soccer and supported the game at every level. This continues to pay off, even a decade after Speed's tragic death.
Thanks to the hard work of Bale and other players like goalkeeper Wayne Hennesey, striker Aaron Ramsey, and defender Ashley Williams - the team qualified for the UEFA European Championship in both 2016, and 2020. They made it to the semi-final in 2016.
In June 2022, after years of build-up, Wales beat Ukraine and qualified for the FIFA World Cup for the first time in 64 years. The tournament will take place in Qatar in November 2022.
[ photo embedded from FAW Cymru ]