Cardiff City had been holding out hope that Gareth Bale might return to his hometown, but he opted for Los Angeles instead. In the end, he made the pragmatic choice rather than the romantic one.
Gareth Bale choosing to see out next season with Cardiff City would have had an exceptional emotional pull, not least in the year that the national football team reached its first World Cup finals since 1958 and in the stadium which became so central to Wales’s qualification.
But there are coherent reasons why Bale might be better off in California than in Glamorganshire next season, especially if those World Cup finals are his primary focus for the second half of 2022.
Bale is a lavishly talented footballer and possessor of a left foot with alchemic properties, but he is also injury-prone and therefore delicate.