Gareth Bale bids farewell to Welsh fans after losing to England at the World Cup in Qatar on November 29. CARL RECINE (Portal)
Steven Cherundolo celebrated the evening’s final goal with a relentlessly honest confession. “Now we all know he can walk,” he said, gesturing towards Gareth Bale, author of the 4-1 draw with Real Salt Lake, after a sprint that surprised locals and strangers alike. Especially their own, since the Los Angeles FC staff weren’t very sure that this old freight train could start what they say was the equivalent of a bullet train. In training, his team-mates had only seen the Welshman move with the heavy slowness that the sunset signals. But on that afternoon in August 2022, at the start of the regular Major League Soccer tournament, in front of the 20,000 fans of the stadium in the city of Great Salt Lake, the legend who won five European cups – only 18 players in history have made it and one of them is Nacho- demanding maximum performance from his body, which was second to last.
Bale has never scored again in the regular league in the United States – he has never played diligently again, having barely played two games out of 12 as a starter – and he has reserved his last appearance to score the goal that defeated the penalty shootout would secure in the finals, winning against the Philadelphia Union on the eve of the World Cup.
After completing the World Cup ritual in Qatar, the culmination of 17 seasons of professionalism, Bale did what his representation agency sources said he had been aiming for for years. This Monday, the Welshman, 33, took to Twitter to share what all his friends were expecting of him any moment. “After careful consideration, I announce my immediate retirement,” he said.
Four and a half years had passed since Real Madrid president Florentino Pérez handed the reins over to Cristiano Ronaldo. After winning the Champions League final in Kyiv, the club decided to let the Portuguese go to put Bale in his place. The transition began in 2016 with a contract that provided for the collection of a salary to which title prices would be consolidated: a total of more than 20 million euros net per season. The Madrid board felt they deserved it. If this slim, dolichocephalic boy had scored goals in three of the four Champions League finals the club have won since 2014, it couldn’t be coincidence, although Zidane kept insisting they transfer him. When Bale finally took over the team’s flag in June 2018, the one who stepped down was Zidane.
With the obstacles standing in the way of his ambition removed, his ordeal began. His superb hurdling, decathlete agility and industrial punch forced to serve as a benchmark went from being a useful tool to an underpowered force in the order supported by Benzema, Modric, Kroos and Cristiano. Without the cognitive activity that characterizes consistent footballers under maximum stress, their skills fizzle out. He lacked regularity and vocation. As Zidane said when he fired him in 2020: “I have 25 players and the most important thing is that they compete.”
claustrophobia
The public statements made by top football do not allow for more clarity. Bale didn’t start the way Zidane wanted. The first thing the France manager did when the club asked him to return in 2019 was to suggest to the board that the best thing Bale could do was change the scene. Until then, the player was not doing well. He came from 22 absences in the 18-19 league. Doctors pointed out that his muscles — particularly the soleus and gastrocnemius muscles — were torn from stress from years of daily walks around the golf courses in Madrid. “Mentally it was always the place to get out of the football bubble,” he admitted when asked about golf, his true passion. For Bale, football had claustrophobic connotations.
On loan to Tottenham, he understood that his heavy body of over 80 kilos, which had been idle for so many months, would no longer be easily fine-tuned. He was 31 years old and it took Tottenham coaches six months to achieve that. When he was repeating sprints again with some ease in January 2021, it didn’t last long. The physical complaints played out with an uncontrollable rhythm. Nominally, he was still a footballer. Biologically no.
He joined Madrid in 2013 after paying €100m to Tottenham. The status of most expensive player in history almost always weighed on him, never in the finals. He won the last Champions League without playing a minute in Paris. After the contract ended, he signed with Los Angeles FC with the never-acknowledged intention of preparing for the World Cup. He played, scoring a penalty, drawing a game and losing three, the last a game between Wales and England.
“I’ll keep playing as long as I can,” he pursed his mouth before exiting Doha. He had just guided Wales to their first World Cup since 1958. He was a national hero. He would never put the boots on again.
“I turn the page with the desire to see the next chapter of my life,” he said in his farewell speech, which was tinged with an inevitable tone of joy.
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