As Gareth Bale Retires, LAFC Got More Than Their Money’s Worth

Perhaps country music star Toby Keith best summed up Gareth Bale’s LAFC legacy best:

“I ain’t as good as I once was. But I’m as good once as I ever was.”

Bale became the latest star figure in Major League Soccer to announce a major life transition on Monday, revealing on Twitter he will be retiring and bringing to an end a 17-year professional career.

And while Bale will be most remembered for his heroics for helping Wales to their second World Cup (and first since 1958) and his role on several Real Madrid LaLiga- and UEFA Champions League-winning squads, LAFC fans will fondly recall him as the author of the greatest single moment in their club’s history.

Bale played only 12 games and 355 minutes in league play after his arrival this summer and looked largely ineffective most of that time while dealing with minor injury and fitness issues. He even became an afterthought through the first two rounds of the MLS Cup Playoffs for LAFC manager Steve Cherundolo, excluded from the team sheet all together in a conference semifinal win over the rival LA Galaxy and left unused on the bench in a conference final romp past Austin FC.

It also went that way for the first 96 minutes of the MLS Cup final against the Philadelphia Union before Cherundolo finally sent Bale on in extra time. And when Philadelphia took a 3-2 lead four minutes into stoppage time of the second extra time period, the 33-year-old still had yet to take a shot in the match.

Then this happened:

After Bale leveled, LAFC went on to win what is widely considered the best MLS Cup Final of all time on penalties, fdelivering the most sought after MLS silverware to one of the rare MLS clubs that was a contender immediately from its expansion season.

And even if you rate Bale’s goal as his only substantial contribution to LAFC’s title run, you’d have to say it was worth it. Bale will have made likely only half of his total guaranteed annual compensation of just under $2.4 million, according to data from the MLS Players Union, since his contract ran from the middle of 2022 to the middle of 2023.

That enormous pay cut from his Real Madrid days, albeit one that was probably manufactured by off-the-field marketing agreements not counted toward the contract, allowed LAFC to keep hold of its third Designated Player slot. They used that to sign Denis Bouanga, who arrived from St. Etienne and immediately became among their most important players. And whatever off-the-field marketing money Bale took in was also probably worth it given the enormous hype and attention he brought to the club and the league.

Yet Bale may also have been more of a key contributor to LAFC’s run than the stats show, in both expected and unexpected ways. His teammates very obviously took to him early on, as they did to fellow summer veteran signing Giorgio Chiellini, another Euro star reduced to a relatively minor role on the pitch. The leadership and insight from that duo likely provided a boost that can’t be quantified.

But all the attention on Bale in particularly might also have helped shift the focus away from the rest of a squad that had been considered habitual playoff underachievers since their expansion season, and especially since they won the Supporters’ Shield in 2019.

Bale’s arrival was decidedly different from most of the previous well-known European stars that have come to MLS in that it didn’t really have the impact of raising expectations. They were already about as high as they could have been. That wasn’t the case for the LA Galaxy prior to David Beckham or more recently Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez. It wasn’t the case for the New York Red Bulls prior to Thierry Henry or D.C. United before Wayne Rooney’s arrival. It probably won’t be the case if the long-rumored Lionel Messi to Inter Miami move ever actually materializes.

It’s an interesting idea — that a star toward the end of his career might actually ease the pressure on a squad like the Philadephia Union or Austin FC if they contend again this year for their first MLS Cup titles. And it’s one we’re probably likely to see other clubs try and replicate.

But it won’t be easy. Bale fell to LAFC in extremely unique circumstances — at the end of his club career but with an enormously important international tournament looming at the end of the season to keep him focused. That obviously won’t happen again in the near future given the unique timing of the 2022 FIFA World Cup.