KEIR RADNEDGE REPORTS —- Gareth Bale, one of Wales’ greatest-ever footballers and one of the most controversial European club champions with Real Madrid, has retired from the game.

His decision comes six weeks after the 33-year-old’s single World Cup finals campaign ended after a 3-0 group stage defeat by England . Injury-hit Bale had a disappointing time in Qatar but without him Wales would not have been at the party for the first time in 64 years at all.

Previously Wales’ most-capped men’s player with 111 appearances had led his country to their first major tournament since the 1958 World Cup by reaching Euro 2016, where they made an unlikely run to the semi-finals.

The Dragons then backed that up with a last-16 appearance at Euro 2020 and qualification for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

Bale won 16 trophies, including the Champions League on five occasions – more than any other British player – as well as three league titles, three Club World Cups, three UEFA Super Cups and one Spanish cup. He scored 104 goals in more than 250 appearances in a Spanish career marred by critical comments about his passion for the golf course.

He announced his decision via Instagram, saying: “After careful and thoughtful consideration, I announce my immediate retirement from club and international football.

“I feel incredibly fortunate to have realised my dream of playing the sport I love. It has truly given me some of the best moments of my life. The highest of highs over 17 seasons, that will be impossible to replicate, no matter what the next chapter has in store for me.

‘Dream come true’

“From my very first touch at Southampton to my last with LAFC and everything in between, shaped a club career that I have an immense pride and gratitude for. Playing for and captaining my country 111 times has truly been a dream come true.

“To show my gratitude to all of those that have played their part along this journey, feels like an impossibility. I feel indebted to many people for helping to change my life and shape my career in a way I couldn’t have ever dreamed of when I first started out at nine years old.

“To my previous clubs, Southampton, Tottenham, Real Madrid and finally LAFC. All of my previous managers and coaches, backroom staff, team mates, all the dedicated fans, my agents, my amazing friends and family, the impact you have had is immeasurable.”

Bale launched his senior career at 17 in the English second tier at Southampton before moving to Tottenham Hotspur two years later. After six seasons and nearly 150 appearances in the Premier League during which he was named Footballer of the Yea in 2011 and 2013, he was sold to Madrid for a then world €100m.

Lisbon glory

In 2013-14, his first season in Spain, he helped Real Madrid to their 10th Champions League trophy. Bale made 12 appearances and scored six goals in the triumphant campaign, including in the 4-1 extra-time victory over neighbours Atletico Madrid in the final in Lisbon.

Most notably he scored two dramatic goals in Madrid’s 2018 final victory over Liverpool in Kyiv. He returned to Tottenham on loan for a season then moved in June 2022 to Major League Soccer with whom he helped Los Angeles FC win their first MLS Cup.

Cardiff-born Bale had become Wales’ youngest player when he made his debut as a substitute at 16 years 315 days against Trinidad & Tobago in May 2006. Having scored 41 goals, he remains their all-time top scorer.

He captained Wales in their first European Championship in 2016, making the semi-finals, and helped them qualify again for Euro 2020, before reaching the 2022 World Cup for the first time since 1958.

Welsh farewell

In a separate statement to Wales fans and team, Bale described his decision to retire from international football as “by far the hardest of my career.”

He added: “The fortune of being Welsh and being selected to play for and captain Wales, has given me something incomparable to anything else I’ve experienced.

“I am honoured and humbled to have been able to play a part in the history of this incredible country, to have felt the support and passion of the red wall, and together (we) have been to unexpected and amazing places.

“I shared a dressing room with boys that became brothers, and backroom staff that became family.”

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