Always scared me: Gareth Bale opens up about fear of going bankrupt

The former Wales international was once among the highest-paid footballers.

Former football player Gareth Bale talks about the fear of going bankrupt despite pocketing £29 million a year during his time at Real Madrid.

The former Madrid forward, who won five UEFA Champions League titles with the club, hung up his boots after the 2022 FIFA World Cup. He opens up about former athletes losing their fortunes after retiring early in their careers.

“There was one thing that always scared me inside,” the 36-year-old told Front Office Sports.

“You read articles about when people finish professional sports, they go bankrupt. They don’t know how to manage their money, they don’t know how to do all these things.”

Despite being one of the highly paid football players during his playing time, the former Welsh forward revealed he made efforts to live a normal life.

During his prime years, Gareth Bale was among the top-paid football players at Madrid, earning £554,000 per week at the Santiago Bernabeu after signing a six-year, £150million contract in 2016. 

Meanwhile, during that time, Spanish outlet Marca ranked him as the continent’s third-highest earner, behind only Neymar and Lionel Messi. 

Gareth Bale reveals how footballers’ fear of going bankrupt

However, his time at the club ended in an acrimonious way after he was reduced to a bench player and was seen as a fringe figure at the club due to recurring injuries.

“A lot of, I imagine, athletes live a big lavish lifestyle. I try not to do that. I always had one eye on what life would be like after football,” he said.

“When I finish, I stop getting the paycheck. How do people then restructure their lives?,” Gareth Bale continued. 

“So I was always trying to diversify from quite early on. Always had this pillar idea where I would try and invest my money in different things. If one pillar got chopped down and didn’t work, the whole building is not going to fall down.”

Following his retirement from football, Gareth Bale has invested in many business ventures in Cardiff. He owns Elevens Bar and Par 59, a mini-golf themed bar in the city centre. He has even led a consortium that tabled a £40m bid to purchase his hometown club, Cardiff City.

Moreover, he has recently started working as a pundit at TNT Sport for their Champions League coverage and has a sponsorship deal with BMW.  

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