Sport
Gareth Bale transfer – An overview of his time in Madrid
The Gareth Bale transfer back to Tottenham is a rare deal that sees everyone come out as a winner. Real Madrid get rid of a huge chunk of wages during a financial crisis, although Spurs are reported to be paying just £220,000-a-week of his £600,000-a-week salary. Bale gets to play football again, at somewhere he is not just admired but loved, while Spurs have another elite talent to bolster an attack that has been highly reliant on Harry Kane for too long. But with Bale’s seven years at Madrid over he is unlikely to return to the club even though he is contracted for two more years. So how successful was his time at the Santiago Bernabeu?
Madrid are not exactly known for lengthy statements on transfers but it was still striking how they chose to confirm Bale’s departure from the club. “Our club wishes the best of luck to a player who is part of one of the most successful periods of our history” the club said, ending the Bale era in just 23 brief words.
On paper, Bale is arguably the most successful British footballer in history. He won four Champions League titles in a glittering five-year period at Madrid, adding a brace of La Liga crowns and a trio of Club World Cups to boot.
Few can match that collection of medals and Bale was central to some of Madrid’s most important victories in that time, scoring three goals in Champions League finals, including a bicycle kick against Liverpool in 2018 that is arguably the showpiece’s best ever strike.
It was after that game that Bale signalled he was intending to move on from Madrid and, with the benefit of hindsight, a transfer at that time would have been the best route forward for him. Instead Cristiano Ronaldo was sold, joining Serie A giants Juventus, and Bale was left behind.
Madrid must have hoped they were signing the next Ronaldo when they agreed to pay Spurs a then-world record fee of €100million for the Gareth Bale transfer in 2013 but he never quite hit those heights.
Indeed, it was due to Ronaldo’s continued presence that Bale was rarely given the chance to play in what was regarded as his best position, a roving role from the left, instead having to make the right wing his own, where he could cut in and shoot to sometimes devastating effect.
But when Ronaldo did leave in 2018, Bale was unable to step up, despite Zinedine Zidane having also moving on, the coach and the Wales star had a rocky relationship. With Bale struggling to stay fit, Madrid toiled under both Julen Lopetegui and his successor Santiago Solari, which led to the return of Zidane less than a year after he had quit.
Bale always seemed an unlikely fit as one of Madrid’s many Galacticos, with his love of the golf course regularly held against him during his time in the Spanish capital. It was claimed that Bale made little impact to learn the language and he regularly skipped team dinners, painting a picture of a quiet man who was struggling to adapt in a foreign country.
But Bale also had a tendency to sulk when things went against him. For a time, he was reluctant to celebrate goals for Madrid and on one occasion he was punished by the league for making a gesture that was described as “obscene”. He has always looked far happier in Wales’ colours.
The forward also made a habit of showing disrespect by leaving games early if he was not playing, being spotted driving away from the stadium before full-time more than once.
At the end of last season with Zidane unwilling to play Bale, he barely featured post-lockdown, the Welshman was seen playing pranks in the stands, which further angered Los Blancos supporters.
Zidane’s reasons for not trusting Bale will remain secret for now but it is clear that consistency has been an issue for the 31-year-old since he left Spurs for Madrid. Indeed, in seven seasons at the club he could only start more than 30 of Madrid’s 38 LaLiga fixtures on one occasion, indicating a lack of ability to stay fit even when he was in favour.
The list of injuries suffered by Bale is too long to recount in full but he has been plagued by ankle, knee and hamstring injuries in the last two seasons. Bale has not scored a league goal for over a year – he was also sent off in that game, a 2-2 draw at Villarreal – and he last scored at the Bernabeu in March 2019. However, these Gareth Bale stats shouldn’t detract from his otherwise fine record for the club, with 105 goals and 68 assists in 251 appearances for the club in total.
Spurs will hope the Gareth Bale transfer, albeit a loan move, will bring them the player they enjoyed between 2012 and 2016 rather than the Bale of 2017 to 2020.
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