Gareth Bale has officially decided to retire from soccer effective immediately. That means that he will not be returning to LAFC to help the team defend their MLS championship. The decision isn’t overly surprising, but the timing is a bit odd. There had been no updates on Bale after Wales’ first round exit at the World Cup. Rumors had indicated that in fact Bale was going to walk away from the game after the World Cup. What’s Bale’s legacy in the game?
Did He Live Up To That Madrid Transfer?
We’d have to say that he did. At the time when the skinny former left back was signed by Real Madrid for over 100 million euros a lot of people were questioning the market in general. Bale was not necessarily well known in Spain before his transfer to Real Madrid. Perhaps the last few years that he played in the Spanish capital tarnish his legacy with the club. Looking back though he’s a player that always found a way to show up in the big moments.
Even during seasons in which he wasn’t being used regularly he would find a way to come into the game and effect the outcome. He did so in two Champions League finals, the epic Copa del Rey final against Barcelona. On those moments alone it could be argued that his transfer was worthwhile because without him there’s a chance Madrid doesn’t pick up those trophies. Yes, the original transfer was expensive, and he took a lot of money from the club for not playing much in the last few years, but those trophies are his saving grace for sure.
The Later Years Were Odd To Say The Least
As we just mentioned, people are going to point to the last few years of Bale in Madrid to try and say that he was a lazy player or whatever it may be. That criticism is certainly and Bale’s antics during those years don’t help his case at all. That time when he held up the Welsh flag that read, “Wales, Golf, Madrid in that order” we can’t help but think that Florentino Perez was somewhere throwing a massive fit. Ultimately it’s hard to know what happened in those moments. Did Bale really decide that he didn’t care about playing anymore? Was there a falling out with Zidane? It’s maybe a little bit of both.
The fact that he decides that he doesn’t want to play anymore at 33 is a clear indication that he wasn’t necessarily happy with his current job. That’s one of the things that we on the outside looking in may never understand. There are literally millions of people in the world that would’ve killed to be where Bale was to see him throw away his chances and lose his will to play is odd to say the least.
We Don’t Need Too Many Bales In The Game
Bale was a top player in his prime. His prime was arguably short lived though, and since he was in Cristiano Ronaldo’s shadow for pretty much his entire prime we maybe didn’t get to see him shine as much. Why then do we not need too many players like him? Well because he got bored with the game, and sort of quit. That doesn’t send a good message to kids out there.
Any athlete that loses the passion for the game is a sad sight. It can happen, there are a lot of things that come your way as you get older, and you do lose boyhood passions. When that happens for a big time athlete it’s just sad. It pulls back the curtains on that “magic” that is still important in sports. Happy retirement to Gareth Bale, good career, but hopefully we don’t see too many cases like this again.
