Gareth Bale has been a busy man since retiring from football in 2023
Gareth Bale may have retired in 2023, but he will be cheering on his country as they aim to make it to this summer’s World Cup. The iconic forward helped Wales qualify for Euro 2016 and Euro 2020, sending them into the knockout rounds at both tournaments.
Bale’s final act for his country was playing in the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. With impressive stints at Real Madrid and Tottenham during his club career, the 36-year-old retired at Los Angeles FC with plenty of silverware.
These days, Bale focuses his energy on his many business ventures and has his eye on entering football ownership, with his hometown club, Cardiff City, the most attractive option.
Here, Wales Online has all the latest on Bale’s ventures in football, including where he is spending his impressive wealth.
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What is Gareth Bale’s net worth?
Three years after retiring, Bale is said to be worth an estimated £120million. The former winger was earning a whopping £600,000 a week at the peak of his career at Madrid after he secured a then-world-record £85m transfer from England to Spain.
However, his wealth doesn’t just come from his earnings on the pitch. He began his business portfolio while still playing, opening a bar called Elevens in Cardiff’s city centre in 2017.
In March 2022, Bale then created Par 59, a golfing games bar, which opened on St Mary Street in Wales’ capital. Another bar of the same name opened in Bristol just months later, helping boost Bale’s wealth even further.
The ex-Spurs star became a minority shareholder at Penderyn Distillery and also staked a claim in Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy’s TGL golf league. Bale continues to hold lucrative endorsement deals with major brands like BMW, Adidas and PlayStation.
Cardiff City takeover plans
Bale first confirmed his desire to take over his hometown club, Cardiff City, in 2025. The Welshman joined an American consortium that was interested in the Bluebirds, which he confirmed at the F1 movie premiere last June.
Speaking to Sky Sports, Bale said: “We are interested in getting Cardiff. It’s my home club, it’s where I grew up, and my uncle used to play for them. To be involved with an ownership group would be a dream come true.”
A month later, the group submitted a bid to owner Vincent Tan and claimed their offer was “serious and fair,” as per The Guardian. While this takeover never materialised at the time, Bale told The Overlap’s Stick to Football podcast that he still wants to own a football team.
He said: “I understand it’s a long time retired, I’ve been planning it since I was about 26 or 27. I always said when I retired that I wanted one, two, three years to decompress and enjoy with the kids, then try to find a few paths I want to go down.
“Obviously, you (Gary Neville) owning a football team, you understand the stresses of it. But we went and looked down that route. It’s something that does interest me. We obviously tried with Cardiff last summer, which didn’t materialise. And they are doing amazing again this season!”
Transfer ambitions for Bluebirds
Had the takeover gone through for Cardiff, Bale revealed that he was planning to take the League One side all the way to the Premier League. He said: “It’s a club close to my heart.
“It’s where I grew up and I would love to be able to be a part of growing Cardiff and taking it to the Premier League where it belongs. I know how amazing the Welsh fans and Cardiff fans are. It would be amazing to try and do something together. We are trying to engage with Cardiff and more news will come out on that in the future but hopefully we can get something done.”
The dream of taking Cardiff to the top flight would see Bale spend some of his wealth to buy quality players for his hometown club.
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