In the end, Gareth Bale decided it was better to burn out than fade away. It is a choice befitting a supernova of a player, capable of shining as bright as any player of his generation when at his sparkling best.
Bale retired on Monday at the relatively tender age of 33. It came as a shock only because he insisted in the immediate aftermath of Wales’ World Cup group stage exit in Qatar that he would continue. The sad truth is that recently his body has shown signs of wear not because of the miles travelled but from the scorching speeds he reached.
– Wales star Gareth Bale retires from pro football at age 33
It was in the San Siro on Oct. 20, 2010, that Bale announced himself to the world, and those of us there that night will never forget it. Tottenham would end up losing 4-3 to Inter Milan, but Bale’s hat trick demonstrated a mixture of devastation and defiance that would come to encapsulate his career.
Spurs were 4-0 down and playing with 10 men after a disastrous first half, but in a boorish atmosphere with the Nerazzurri eyeing a complete humiliation, a 21-year-old left winger somehow found the courage to play with unalloyed freedom. His second-half hat trick was no fluke; rather, it was the product of his fearsome pace and direct style.
Bale burst down the left and fired a low shot, arrowlike, past Julio Cesar with striking efficiency not once or twice but three times. In the reverse match a fortnight later, he tormented Inter again, starring in a 3-1 win that had the crowd chanting “Taxi for Maicon!” as one of the game’s most respected full-backs was reduced to a punchline.
Clive Allen was assistant coach to then-Spurs manager Harry Redknapp that season. “Amazingly, Inter didn’t seem to have a specific plan for him,” Allen said of that second match. “We anticipated in the days before the game they might double up or man-mark him. Yet they just left Maicon one-on-one.”
It would be the last time an opponent failed to plan for Bale.
Euro 2016 marked Wales’ first finals appearance in 58 years, and they reached the semifinals with Bale at the heart of everything, scoring three times. Attempts to reach a second Euros and a first World Cup began to drive his decisions at the club level: a stuttering loan back to Tottenham for the 2020-21 season featuring just seven appearances preceded a move to Los Angeles FC, where he won the MLS Cup in what has now turned out to be his final club game as a professional.
But all the while he resembled a thoroughbred heading out for the occasional stretch to blow away the cobwebs, biding his time for the biggest races to come. Wales successfully reached the delayed Euro 2020 finals, but it was in reaching the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, the country’s first in 64 years, that Bale took his homeland to places they could only dream of.
Wales became his haven away from the turmoil of Madrid, and in turn he embraced the starring role, revelling in the pressure of taking a squad made up largely of lesser talents from lower divisions to, finally, a World Cup. However, he was a shadow of his best in Qatar, scoring his country’s only goal from the penalty spot against the U.S., and after an ineffectual display against Iran, Bale was substituted with an injury at half-time in defeat to England.
It was a stage befitting of the player, even if it was bereft of a performance worthy of a curtain call. Bale’s decline had begun, and he had no interest in raging against the dying of the light.
Bale ends his career with 41 goals in 111 caps and a strong case for being Wales’ greatest-ever player. Nobody who has amassed 18 trophies making up some of the most coveted in the game could ever be accused of a lack of hunger, determination or dedication, but Bale chose to compartmentalise his talent. He sought a balanced life, joy away from the club game on the golf course or in the unusually close camaraderie of his Wales teammates.
Some will have wanted more from a player capable of such match-winning genius. But that is always the problem with anything that burns so bright: the world feels so much darker without it.
