Gareth Bale has announced his retirement at the age of 33.
Here, Football Mad takes a look at the Wales great’s career in pictures:
Gareth Bale started his career as a left-back at Southampton and quickly made a name for himself (PA)Bale joined Tottenham in 2007 and scored his first goal for the club in a 3-3 draw with Fulham that September, but his season was soon wrecked by injury (Nick Potts/PA)Bale’s performances for Tottenham in the 2010-11 Champions League, in particular home and away against Inter Milan, drew widespread praise (Nick Potts/PA)Bale celebrates a north London derby goal against Arsenal (Sean Dempsey/PA)Bale won the PFA Player of the Year and Young Player of the Year awards in 2013 (PA)Bale joined Real Madrid in a then-world record deal in 2013, joining the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo at the Bernabeu (Adam Davy/PA)Bale scored as Real beat Atletico Madrid to win the Champions League in 2014, the club’s 10th European Cup triumph (Nick Potts/PA)Bale celebrates scoring for Wales against England at Euro 2016 (John Walton/PA)Bale helped Wales reach the semi-finals of the tournament (Joe Giddens/PA)Bale won the Champions League for a third time with Real in 2017, coming off the bench after an injury-plagued season as his side beat Juventus in the final in Cardiff (Nick Potts/PA)Bale scored an outrageous overhead kick in the 2018 Champions League final to inspire Real to victory over Liverpool (Peter Byrne/PA)Bale returned to Tottenham on loan for the 2020-21 season under Jose Mourinho (Nick Potts/PA)Bale helped Wales reach the knockout stage of the delayed Euro 2020 (PA)Bale collected a fifth Champions League winners’ medal in 2022 but left Real that summer (Nick Potts/PA)Bale led Wales to their first World Cup since 1958 following victory over Ukraine (David Davies/PA)Bale scored a penalty to earn Wales a 1-1 draw in their opening World Cup group game against the United States in Qatar (Nick Potts/PA)But Bale was powerless to prevent Wales bowing out of the World Cup following a 3-0 defeat to England, which proved to be his final competitive appearance (Martin Rickett/PA)