Gareth Bale announced his retirement from club and international soccer Monday, and so leaves one of modern soccer’s greats. Bale achieved just about everything possible at the club level, leaving an 18-year career with five Champions League trophies, four league titles, a pair of domestic cups and a host of player of the year awards. He also led his home nation Wales to unprecedented success at international tournaments, reaching two European championships and a World Cup.
But his legacy will be that of a player of the moment. From his explosion onto the scene at Tottenham, to his legendary cup final goals at Real Madrid, to his final club goal with LAFC, Bale made a career out of captivating fans by capturing the spotlight time and time again.
Here’s a look at some of the biggest moments in Bale’s career, both on and off the pitch:
Hat trick vs. Inter Milan at San Siro, 2010
After a breakout 2009-10 season, it was clear Bale was ready for the big time. That meant the 21-year-old was going to start for Spurs in the club’s first ever Champions League appearance. Tottenham entered the San Siro, the historic home of Italian giant Inter Milan, and proceeded to collapse within minutes. An early red card saw Tottenham go down three goals and a man within 14 minutes, and the deficit was extended to four by halftime.
Bale was unfazed coming out of the half. Twice he streaked down the left sideline past Maicon, one of the most accomplished right backs of his generation, and pummeled the ball into the goal at the far post. He scored a third in the 91st minute to bring the deficit to 4–3. The comeback fell short, but the shocking performance turned a “welcome to the league” moment into a coming out party. It surely inspired Tottenham, who beat Inter 3–1 at home several weeks later.
Record transfer to Real Madrid, 2013
Bale had spent most of his six seasons in North London proving himself as one of the most exciting players in all of European soccer. He scored blasts from outside the 18-yard box, showed off his speed with his signature charging runs forward and kept an otherwise toothless Spurs team in contention for European tournament spots. His 21 goals—many of which were highlight-reel worthy—earned him Premier League and PFA Player of the Year in 2012-13. It also earned him a look from Spanish giants Real Madrid.
Having just poached midfielder Luka Modrić the year before, Los Blancos spent a then-world-record $111 million to secure the 24-year-old Bale. It took some convincing (and a reported standoff with the star) for Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy to let go of the prized young winger. In the end, Spurs nabbed the record fee and Madrid retooled to go after La Liga and the Champions League.
Copa del Rey final winner vs. Barcelona, 2014
Bale hardly missed a beat in his first season in the Spanish capital. He scored 15 goals and assisted 12 in 27 league matches while Madrid faltered in La Liga to finish third for the first time in a decade. But trophies were still in play, and an El Clásico in the Copa del Rey final was the first massive stage of Bale’s career.
The two archrivals were deadlocked heading into the game’s waning minutes. Receiving a ball down the left flank, Bale turned to see defender Marc Bartra flat-footed. He took a seemingly heavy touch and maneuvered around Bartra, whose attempt to shield him from the ball was futile, before latching back onto it and finishing cooly between the legs of the goalkeeper.
It was a classic Bale goal in every sense of the word: The push of the ball past the right back, the otherworldly pace to catch up, and the composed finish in a critical spot to give his side a 2–1 victory and just its second Copa del Rey title since the turn of the century.
Wales reaches Euros semifinal, 2016
Despite all his club accolades, Bale never figured to have sustained success at the international level. Wales had never reached a European championship and had made the World Cup just once in its history. So when he led his side to its first-ever appearance at the Euros in 2016 with seven goals in qualifying, the feat was met with jubilance, but few expectations. That changed when group play began.
The Welsh grabbed a deserved win over Slovakia to open the tournament, then came within seconds of beating England before a 92nd-minute winner from the Three Lions. Wales then took it to Russia in the third group game, winning 3–0 to win the group. Bale scored in all three matches.
The miracle continued when Wales scraped past Northern Ireland in the round of 16. Then, in a true David vs. Goliath fashion, Bale and Co. dispatched Real Madrid teammate Eden Hazard’s Belgium 3–1. It was perhaps the nation’s greatest-ever moment on a pitch.
Wales fell to eventual champion Portugal in the semifinals, but the historic run will forever live on in the country’s soccer lore.
Brace in Champions League final, 2018
The backdrop for this final was Bale’s apparent discontent with his time in Madrid. Even after the match, a 3–1 win for Los Blancos, he told reporters: “I need to be playing week-in, week-out and that hasn’t happened this season for one reason or another.”
That didn’t stop him from putting together a mesmerizing performance in his fourth Champions League final. Bale arrived off the bench in a 1–1 tie in the 61st minute and made an immediate and shocking impact. Left back Marcelo whipped a cross into the box with some pace, and Bale launched himself into the air to hit a perfectly-timed overhead kick past goalkeeper Loris Karius and into the top corner. Even manager Zinedine Zidane, who had his own penchant for stunning goals, couldn’t quite believe what he saw.
Bale got another goal in the final minutes of the match on an error by Karius to secure Real Madrid’s third consecutive Champions League title.
His form would wane in the coming years before he made a retirement tour back to Spurs and then to MLS’s LAFC. But few Champions League final goals are more iconic than Bale’s beautiful bicycle kick.
Equalizing goal in MLS Cup final, 2022
Then 32, Bale surprised many when he decided to take his talents to MLS. He joined an LAFC side that already looked to be one of the favorites to win the Supporters’ Shield. But after scoring a solo goal off the bench in his second appearance, Bale offered very little to the league leaders until it mattered most.
LAFC found a late winner against the L.A. Galaxy in the conference semifinals then dominated Austin FC in the conference final to reach its first ever MLS Cup final. A wacky back-and-forth match against the Philadelphia Union saw Bale come onto the pitch in the 97th minute and his side go down 3–2 in the 124th. That scoreline stood for all of four minutes, when the Welsh super sub sent home a last-ditch effort to equalize and send things to penalties, where LAFC would ultimately prevail.
It was a fitting final club goal for a player who rarely failed to rise to the occasion.
First World Cup game for Wales, 2022
If there was one white whale for Bale, it was bringing his home nation back to the world’s biggest stage. The gauntlet of European qualifying left the Welsh in second place in its group in 2022, meaning it would host a qualifying playoff semifinal. A raucous Cardiff City Stadium saw Bale score twice in a 2–1 win over Austria before a 1–0 victory over Ukraine secured Cymru’s return to the World Cup for the first time since 1958.
“Everybody has dreamt of it for such a long time,” Bale said. “We’ve had so many close calls and so for us to be the team that was to get over the line was incredible for us.”
Bale unsurprisingly played hero once again for the Dragons in their first World Cup match in 64 years. Trailing the U.S. 1–0, It was the 33-year-old that drew a penalty and buried it past goalkeeper Matt Turner in the 82nd minute. The dream of a run like its Euro 2016 campaign fizzled out after a 2–0 loss to Iran and 3–0 defeat to England, but the country of just over three million finally got the World Cup moment it desired for decades.
