It's been over two years since arguably Wales' greatest ever footballer, Gareth Bale, announced his decision to retire from the sport.
Before hanging up his boots at the age of 33, the Cardiff-born superstar won 111 caps for Wales, scoring a record 41 goals and leading them to three major tournaments - including a first World Cup for 64 years. At club level, he began his career at Southampton before becoming a star player at Tottenham Hotspur and sealing a then-world record £85 million move to Real Madrid.
He won five Champions Leagues and three La Liga titles during his time in Spain before rounding off his career with a MLS Cup title with Los Angeles FC. Those wins helped Bale retire as one of the most highly-decorated players of the modern era, with 18 trophies to his name, while he has left an incredible legacy for those in Wales and beyond to follow.
While he is no longer playing, Bale has shown no signs of shedding his superstar status, having spent much of the early years of his retirement jetting off on dream holidays and taking in top events alongside sporting and actual royalty, from Novak Djokovic, Steph Curry and Prince William.
However, it's not all been rest and relaxation for the Welshman, who is still in incredible shape two years on from retiring, and has kept himself working hard through a number of different business ventures. Here's everything you need to know about Bale's amazing new life away from the football pitch.
Dream new life
A superstar on the pitch, Bale has been living his best life off of it, spending time with his wife and children.
He married his childhood sweetheart Emma Rhys-Jones in 2019, having already welcomed three children - Alba, Nava and Axel - before a fourth, Xander, was born in 2021.
Since retiring, he has shared more photos of 'family time', jetting off on holidays and creating special memories with his children, with trips to Abu Dhabi, Lapland and the United States all documented on social media.
He has been invited to a number of high-profile events, sitting in the front row at fashion shows across the world having added to his modelling portfolio with Burberry.
Bale has also spent time with a number of famous faces, posing for pictures with Novak Djokovic at Wimbledon, playing Playstation with F1 star Lando Norris and playing golf with Rory McIlroy.
Even when he's at home, the Welshman is living a life many sports fans could only dream of, having built a three-hole custom golf course in the garden of his £4 million mansion in the Vale of Glamorgan.
The mini-course features replicas of three of the most famous holes in the world - the 17th at Sawgrass , the 'postage stamp' 8th at Royal Troon and the 12th at the Augusta National.
Huge net worth
Two years on from announcing his retirement, Bale's net worth is believed to still be around a whopping £120 million.
The former Real Madrid ace earned an eye-watering £600,000 a week during his time in Spain, but also set himself up for well into retirement with a series of business moves.
He opened his bar 'Elevens' in Cardiff in 2017, before building on that success by combining his next bar venture with his love of golf and opening Par 59 on the city's bustling St Mary Street five years later.
Bale has since opened a second Par 59 venue in Bristol, while he has also made a "significant investment" in Penderyn Distillery - despite being teetotal - to become a minority shareholder in the company.
He has also invested in Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy’s TGL golf league, while he has had high-profile endorsement deals with the likes of Adidas, Playstation and BMW over the years.
Shortly after he retired, it was suggested that Bale may choose to buy a football club, with former Wales assistant boss Osian Roberts telling The Athletic that the star forward had been egged on by his team-mates to buy Merthyr Town FC and sign them all.
“They joked during the Euros that they wanted Gareth to buy a Welsh club lower down," he said. "It was Merthyr (who play in the seventh tier of the English league system), actually.
"Everyone would sign for him and take them all the way through the pyramid to the Premier League, so they could all play together every week. That’s how close they were — they didn’t want to just do it during the international breaks, they wanted to be together every day of the week.”
Incredible physique and new sporting goals
Bale recently took to Instagram to share snaps of his recent trip to Abu Dhabi, and showed off his impressive physique in the process.
While he has been away from the football pitch for over two years, the Wales legend clearly keeps himself in good shape with his toned torso and six pack on full display as he took to the beach.
As is well documented, despite his retirement from football, Bale has kept himself busy within sport, regularly hitting the golf course with a reported handicap of two. However, having played alongside Rory McIlroy at an event last year, the Northern Irish golfer believes he could still get that handicap lower as he praised his talent.
"He has the potential to get to scratch [a handicap of zero], the way he hits the ball he could be a scratch player, but he’s only played for the last few years," said McIlroy. "There is a difference between being able to hit the golf ball well and getting yourself around the golf course and managing your game – that’s the part he’s learning now."
Shortly after retiring from football, Bale lost the plot as he scored his first-ever hole in one while playing in California, with the whole thing caught on camera by one of his friends. In a video posted on his nstagram page, he can be seen practicing his swing before the friend filming foreshadows events by saying: "Hole in one time, never had one. This is the hole to do it".
After they watched the ball roll into the hole after sailing 200 yards through the air, there were wild celebrations from Bale and his party, as his friend declared "he doesn't just do bicycle kicks" - in reference to his famous 2018 Champions League final goal.
Last year, Bale also became an ambassador for the Underrated Golf European Tour, the brainchild of basketball star Steph Curry, and he has also worked closely with Adidas on their golf content.
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