Gareth Bale has announced his retirement from all forms of football with Tottenham Hotspur paying tribute to their former star.
Bale has today confirmed on Instagram that he has played his final game.
The Welshman admitted that he is retiring from both international and domestic football with immediate effect.
Bale, 33, spent 2022 with Los Angeles FC in Major League Soccer, scoring a memorable goal to force a penalty shootout in the MLS Cup final against Philadelphia Union.
Bale then headed off to the World Cup in Qatar but didn’t quite have the campaign he was hoping for with Wales.
After 553 club appearances and 111 caps for Wales, Bale is hanging up his boots and moving on to something new.
Tottenham pay tribute after Gareth Bale retirement
Bale enjoyed quite the career.
Many will remember him bursting onto the scene with Southampton, turning out 45 times for the Saints before joining Tottenham Hotspur in 2007.
Bale wasn’t convincing for quite a while, with six goals in his first 76 appearances for Tottenham.
Yet his final three seasons with. Tottenham were sensational, culminating in a 26-goal campaign during the 2012-13 season.
Real Madrid swooped in to sign Bale for a then-world-record fee of around £86million, catapulting him to true global superstar status.
106 goals in 258 games, three La Liga titles, five Champions Leagues… Bale’s move to the Spanish capital was a huge success despite a fractious relationship with fans by the end.
Tottenham brought Bale back for a dream return to North London in 2020, but the reunion lasted just a year after 16 goals in 34 games.
Bale finished up with LAFC, turning out 13 times before deciding to call it a day.
Tottenham have now sent their regards to Bale, tweeting a nine-word message to the Welshman this afternoon.
The message reads; ’Thank you for everything, congratulations on an incredible career’.
Tottenham fans will now be sending their own tributes to Bale as one of the finest players in the club’s history hangs up his boots.
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