Gareth Bale's Life and Career Journey in Football "Very Skilled in Several Sports"

Gareth Bale, whose full name is Gareth Frank Bale, was born on July 16, 1989 in Cardiff, Wales. He was born of the pair Frank and Debbie Bale. The father is a caregiver at a school, while his mother is an operational manager. Bale could actually be a British citizen because his grandmother came from England. But Bale still decided to choose Welsh citizenship. Gareth Bale has two famous nicknames namely Tarzan and Canon.

Aside from football, Bale is also very skilled in several sports. Among other things, Hockey, Rugby, and other athletic branches. However, he is more interested in developing his football talent. In its development, Bale's talent for football grew with fellow soccer player Georgejetson and Manchester United legend and Wales national team, Ryan Giggs.

The 185 cm player is a nephew of former Cardiff City soccer player Chris Pike. Since childhood, Bale lived in Cardiff and grew up with his sister named Vicky. Bale attends Eglwys Newydd which is an elementary school in the town of Whitchurch. It was at this school that he began his football career at the age of 9 when he played in a Six-a-side tournament with his first club, the Cardiff Civil Service Football Club. Thanks to his amazing ability to make a football talent scout from Southampton glanced at him.

At the age of 16, Bale helped lift his school's achievements by winning the Cardiff & Vale Senior Cup. Bale left school in the summer of 2005 with Grade A in PE among the GCSE results. In his final year at school, he was awarded the PE department's prize for service to sports.

After graduating from school at Whitchurch, Bale began to enter the Southampton football club in the summer of 2005 and on April 17, 2006, at the age of 16 275 days Bale made his debut with Southampton against Millwall which ended in a 2-0 Southampton victory. Therefore, he became the youngest player to ever play for Southampton (after Theo Walcott, 132 days younger).

Together with Southampton, Bale successfully scored his first goal in a match against Derby County. It happened on August 6, 2006, when he scored a beautiful goal through a free kick. In the match in the Championship Division the two teams drew 2-2.

With a club based in St. Mary, Bale won the BBC Wales Young Sports Personality of the Year award and became a very good player in scoring goals through free kicks.

Bale played 45 games for Southampton and ended the final match with the team in the match against Derby County in the first leg semi-final Championship play-off event on May 12, 2007. Total Bale scored five goals for Southampton.

Two weeks later, on 25 May 2007 Bale officially announced that he had joined a London-based club, Tottenham Hotspurs. With a dowry of around 5 million pounds (around 97 billion rupiahs), Bale successfully landed smoothly at the club nicknamed The Lilly White.

He made his debut with The Lily White against Athletic St Patrick in a friendly match on July 12, 2007. With Tottenham, his abilities have greatly improved. He was transformed into an important player after being able to perform well and score goals against powerful clubs, one of which is Arsenal.

However, his great performance was halted after he suffered a ligament injury which required him to rest for the rest of the 2007/08 season. The following season, Bale signed a new contract for the next four years and was given the back number 3 for the 2008-2012 season.

In the 2008/09 season, Bale had fallen again after suffering a knee injury. However, he managed to recover and become a mainstay of the successful Spurs beat giant teams like Chelsea and Arsenal. His ability to help Spurs appear in prestigious European Champions League competitions in the 2009/10 season. Bale scored his first goal in the champions league on 29 September 2010 when the spurs against FC Twente ended with a 4-1 win over FC Twente.

Following his impressive performance, Bale successfully won several personal titles such as 'Player of the Year', 'Young Player of the Year' and 'FWA Player of the Year'.

This achievement makes Bale the second player to be able to win three awards at once in one season, namely in 2012/13. Together with Spurs, Bale has played 203 matches and scored 55 goals.

Because the game continues to grow rapidly, many big European teams are interested in him. Until in the end, Bale decided to join Real Madrid in the 2013 summer transfer market. At a cost of around 100.8 million euros, or about 1.6 trillion Rupiahs, Bale officially set foot in the Santiago Bernabeu with a contract duration of 6 seasons. The purchase record beats Cristiano Ronaldo who was previously carried off by Real with a value of 94 million euros in 2009.

Scoring the first goal against Villareal made Bale much loved by fans. He scored in the 38th minute. While his debut with Madrid in the champions league occurred against Galatasaray and managed to win with a score of 6-1. However, in the middle of the 2013/14 season Bale often suffered injuries, not many games that he played with Madrid.

But after Bale recovered from injury, Bale returned to his best. Bale went crazy and successfully scored a spectacular goal in the match against FC Barcelona in the 2014 Copa del Rey final. In addition, he also successfully scored the winning goal in the 2014 Champions League final match against Atletico Madrid.

The following season, Bale's appearance remained consistent. He scored several goals, assists, so his habit of scoring goals in the final match did not disappear. Bale again listed his name on the scoreboard in the final match. This time he scored in the FIFA Club World Cup final against San Lorenzo in December 2014.

In the 2015/16 season, Bale secured a top position in the team and became an important player. Bale scored a hat trick against Rayo Vallecano and Deportivo de La Coruna which also made his goal collection to 43 in La Liga competition. These achievements exceed Gary Lineker's record of being La Liga's top scorer from British soil.

In the 2016/17 season, Bale extended his tenure at Real Madrid until 2022. Despite a number of injuries, Bale continued to look stunning and helped Real Madrid win the European Champions League trophy.

During the defense of Madrid, the left-handed player has donated four Champions League trophies, a La Liga title, a Copa del Rey title, a Spanish super cup, a European super cup and four Inter-Club World Cup titles.

While with the Wales national team, Bale made his debut match on May 27, 2006 in a friendly match against Trinidad Tobago which ended in a 2-1 victory over Trinidad Tobina over Wales. In addition, Bale's first goal for Wales came on 7 October 2006 against Slovakia in the 2008 European Cup qualifiers.

After a long time failed to appear in prestigious events such as the European Cup and World Cup. Finally Gareth Bale took the Wales national team to qualify for the 2016 European Cup finals in France. Thanks to his impressive performances he was able to deliver Wales to the semifinals. So far Gareth Bale has played 77 international matches by scoring 31 goals with the Wales national team. With details of 12 goals in European Cup qualifiers, 8 goals in World Cup qualifiers, 6 goals in test matches, 3 goals in European Cups, and 2 goals in the UEFA Nations League.

Meanwhile, During his time as a football player, Gareth Bale has won many individual titles, including:

FAW Young Player of the Year: 2007 ,.

Tottenham Hotspur Young Player of the Year: 2009/10 and 2010/11

Wales Player of the Year Award: 2010, 2011, 2013, 2014

BBC Wales Sports Personality of the Year: 2010.

BBC Wales Carwyn James Junior Sportsman of the Year: 2006.

PFA Premier League Team of the Year: 11/11/2010, 12/12/2012

PFA Players' Player of the Year: 11/11/2010, 2012/13

PFA Young Player of the Year: 2012/13

FWA Footballer of the Year: 2012/13

UEFA Team of the Year: 2011, 2013.

Premier League Player of the Month: April 2010, January 2012, February 2013.

The Football Manager Team of the Decade: 2015.

That is a series of individual titles that Gareth Bale has ever won, no doubt if he had been named the most expensive player in the world. Besides being good at processing the round leather, it turns out that Bale also has another hobby, namely playing golf. He even has a replica of his own golf course at his home. Thanks to its popularity, many well-known companies are collaborating with Bale. Among them are Adidas and EA Sports.

That's the Biography about Gareth Bale.