Gareth Bale's Real Madrid stats compared to Cristiano, Zidane, Ronaldo & Figo

Happy 33rd birthday, Gareth Bale.

The extraordinary Welshman enjoyed a stellar career at the top of the European footballing mountain, and has recently begun a new challenge in signing for MLS outfit Los Angeles FC.

Bale’s move to MLS confirmed the end of a nine-year stint at Real Madrid that was trophy laden, but never without criticism hurled in the direction of the winger.

Emerging as one of the most exciting attackers in football in the early 2010s with Tottenham, his tantalising performances week after week resulted in Real paying a world record fee to bring Bale to the Santiago Bernabeu in 2013.

The Wales international would form an unworldly trio with Karim Benzema and Cristiano Ronaldo that proved near unstoppable at times, as Los Blancos dominated European football.

But for all the goals Bale scored and the unforgettable, dizzying highlight reel-worthy performances he put in while wearing the Real jersey throughout his nine years, the Welshman could never escape criticism from all angles in Spain.

Be it an apparent inability to learn the language – which we now know is not true following his epic LAFC introduction – his disconnect from life in Madrid or his constant battle for fitness, Bale could not catch a break despite his best efforts, and was regularly villainised by the press.

As a result, his final few years in Madrid saw him fade in importance, regularly being left out of matchday squads and instead being pictured playing golf in his downtime, or holding up ‘Wales, golf, Madrid’ banners while on international duty. Perhaps that one didn’t help your cause, Gareth.

Either way, despite his countless glorious moments in a Los Blancos jersey, he finally left in 2022 with the jury out on his time in the