Gareth Bale may retire after next season, at Real Madrid, from his professional club playing career.
Bale may likely return to Real Madrid after spending this season on loan at Tottenham Hotspur.
He will conclude a one-year deal before retiring in the summer of 2022.
He may be spending this one last season with Real reluctantly because Bale has had a strained relationship with Real.
Despite his track record of success in the Spanish capital, especially in Champions League finals, he is at odds with the club’s manager and fans for a long time.
The 31-year-old’s fitness has been a source of irritation during his tenure in Spain.
For this and other reasons, Bale’s partnership with Zinedine Zidane deteriorated badly leading up to 2018.
Then, it seemed that the Welshman would get a fresh start at Real when the Frenchman left. Zidane exited, for the first time, shortly after Real’s Champions League victory over Liverpool in Kyiv that year.
However, Zidane returned as Real Madrid boss in 2019, after which Bale became a fringe player proper. The comeback manager benched Bale for the majority of last season.
The lack of opportunities under Zidane paved the way for Bale to secure a loan return to Tottenham.
There, Bale has finally enjoyed valuable game time, especially since February.
He is also improving his match sharpness in preparation for Euro 2020 with Wales.
“Going into the Euros I wanted to be match-fit,” he said during the March international break.
“The original plan was to do a season at Spurs and after the Euros still have a year left at Real Madrid. My plan is to go back, that’s as far I have planned,” he added.
Bale’s special workout schedule this season, according to AS, limited him to three days of training a week.
It even included a rest day in order to prevent further injury relapses.
He’s only appeared in a handful of major games because Euro 2020 is his top priority. This is by his own admission in the locker room.
Rumours suggest that his goal is to finish out the final year of his Real contract. With Zidane likely to leave again, he may win back some game time, after all.
Regardless of whether he plays there or not, though, Bale may retire after next season at Real Madrid.
He will quit at the end of next season, when he’ll only be a few weeks away from turning 33.
