Was Gareth Bale worth the money for Real Madrid?

As the Gareth Bale era at Real Madrid looks like it will be ending soon, the question can be asked as to whether Real Madrid got their money’s worth for the €101m fee that Real Madrid paid in 2013. In order to do that, we need to reflect on some history, consider some stats, and remember a few big moments.

I will be honest. I am not proud of this take, but in the summer of 2013 I was furious that we were pursuing Gareth Bale at Tottenham. I thought we were a better side with a traditional 10 and I was very upset that Mesut Ozil was leaving Real Madrid. Ozil in his prime was one of the most dominant creative forces I have ever witnessed.

For much of that first season, where Bale had 15 goals and 12 assists in the league, I stood by that opinion. Bale was good but we were behind both Barcelona and Atletico in the league for the vast majority of the year and even after briefly overtaking them we had dropped back down to third. Fortunately, we were in both the Copa Del Rey and Champions League finals and La Decima that we had waited over a decade for seemed within reach.

Now that we have thirteen big eared trophies, it is easy to forget just how difficult and how painful acquiring number ten actually was. Winning the league had grown almost meaningless to me, not because it was any less of an achievement or because we had a tired dominance of it, but because I had to watch Barcelona go through their European golden era while we suffered. Against this backdrop, we faced Barca in the Copa Del Rey final.

The 2014 Copa Del Rey final would not, in my mind, have been about Gareth Bale had Cristiano Ronaldo not been injured for the match. As it was, I looked to the Welshman with the mentality that if he was going to prove he was worth his astronomical fee, he had better do something special, and boy did he ever.

If you’re like me you just spent about a minute and a half re-watching that goal a few more times. Winning a Copa Del Rey is not in itself justification for spending a nine figure fee on a player, but that moment against our biggest rivals fundamentally changed my perception of Gareth Bale.

Shortly after that, in the Champions League Final, it was Bale again, scoring what would ultimately be the goal that put us ahead for good against Atleti and bringing us La Decima. Since that time, Bale has been the difference in a Champions League final against Liverpool, scored over 100 goals for the club overall, and consistently provided for his teammates as well. He has given us moments that we will never forget, including one of the greatest UCL final goals ever:

When Bale arrived at Real Madrid, I had hoped he would be the successor to Cristiano Ronaldo. This season has unequivocally answered that question and he will never take that mantle at this club. That said, if you had asked me in 2013 if I would pay 100m for a player who over five seasons would score 100 goals and be a huge difference maker in three different finals, two of them in Europe, I would have signed on to that deal in a heartbeat.

There’s plenty of room for debate on this one. The money invested in Bale has not just been the fee but also a wage that will now be incredibly difficult to get off the books. Florentino Perez has been a dogged supporter of his Galactico up until now, and I for one believe that the club paid the price for that this season.

With goals so hard to come by, if Perez had been willing to sign a goalscoring winger last summer instead of assuming Bale would step up in Ronaldo’s place, 2018-2019 would have been much different, but that was the president’s decision, not Bale’s. It was the club who offered him these massive wages despite his injury record and the club that did not have adequate cover for him.

I think for much of this season Bale has been the recipient of a lot of the frustration the fans have accrued due to the overall disaster of the campaign. In some ways, because he is our highest paid player, that makes perfect sense. However, as he seems likely to depart, I do not want to see his accomplishments in the white shirt ignored.

He has earned his place in the history of this club even if he never became Ronaldo level. If he ever finds his way back to the Bernabeu in another shirt, he should be applauded, and I for one will always remember the purchase of Gareth Bale as one that was entirely worth it for Real Madrid.