Former Real Madrid star and Wales captain Gareth Bale announced his retirement Monday after a 17-year career.
The 33-year-old most recently led Wales at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar after the nation went 64 years between appearances on soccer’s biggest stage. Bale also spent last season with LAFC, where he scored in the MLS Cup in November en route to LAFC’s first league title.
“I feel incredibly fortunate to have realised my dream of playing the sport I love,” Bale said in a statement. “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.”
Starting his career with Southampton, Bale went on to a highly successful stint with Tottenham before sealing a world-record transfer to Real Madrid in a $111 million move in 2013. In his nine years with Real, Bale went on to win an astonishing five Champions League titles—scoring in two finals—along with three La Liga trophies.
He is also Wales’s all-time leading goal scorer (41 goals) and appearances leader (111 caps). He also helped the nation qualify for its first European championship in 2016, when Wales went on a surprising run to the semifinals.
“My journey on the international stage is one that has changed not only my life but who I am,” Bale said in a separate post. “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 have been to unexpected and amazing places.”
