LosAngeles

Gareth Bale may need MLS and LAFC more than they need him

27-Jun-2022 08:00:07 | The Guardian

It’s a sign of the league’s progress than it no longer relies on aging foreign stars to make its teams relevant

Gareth Bale needed a new home. This has been true for a while, even when he was still under contract at Real Madrid, where the Welshman became something of an unwanted figure towards the end of a nine-year spell in Spain. Los Angeles should be a more welcoming environment for Bale, not least because California boasts some of the best golf courses in the United States.

The jokes write themselves about a player who once famously waved a flag that read ‘Wales. Golf. Madrid. In that order’, but there are solid reasons for Bale to be in LA. The 32-year-old is counting on Los Angeles FC to help him prepare for the 2022 World Cup, a potentially career-defining tournament for a player who has already won five Champions League titles, three La Liga titles and scored more than 100 goals for Real Madrid. Wales need Bale to be fit and firing by November (when they open their World Cup campaign against, appropriately enough, the US). There’s history to be made.