Now at Los Angeles FC in the MLS, Gareth Bale will be best remembered, at least at club level, for his spells at Tottenham Hotspur and Real Madrid.
The Welshman, who started his professional career at Southampton, moved to Spurs in 2007 in a £13m move, which saw him stay contracted to the club until 2013.
He then moved to Real Madrid for a fee exceeding €100m, bringing in a lot of money for Tottenham, who then went on to try and spend it wisely, although that didn’t work out so well.
Bale helped the La Liga side win a number of Champions Leagues, which he was never able to do at Spurs, but he did have some memorable seasons at the London side, especially under André Villas-Boas.
It wasn’t enough to keep the Portuguese manager in his job, but the Wales international did score 26 goals and pick up 15 assists that year, which the 45-year-old is quite proud about.
Relayed by O Jogo, he revealed how he was able to do that when talking on a panel named ‘Emerging Stars: How do you get to the top?’ as part of the Web Summit.
Recalling how players in China ‘are more used to following orders, in an almost dictatorship rule’, he said it was different in Europe, where ‘there is the creative side of letting footballers have freedom’.
He then mentioned Bale and Tottenham: “Gareth Bale was one of those examples. He is a player who likes that freedom, and, at Tottenham, he produced an incredible season with me, which took him to Real Madrid, where he won a series of trophies. Sometimes, you have to open up that freedom.”
