With a big smile and very happy for the warm welcome he received, Gareth Bale was officially presented as a new player for Los Angeles FC in MLS and assured that he feels that this is the ideal place.
“It’s an incredible honor to be here,” said the former Real Madrid player at a press conference in Los Angeles (USA).
“This club is an incredible project. After speaking with Larry Freedman and John Thorrington (both team co-chairmen), it was very clear to me that this was the place I wanted to be.”
The striker has signed a contract for twelve months with the option of extending it until 2024.
«I have not come here to stay six or twelve months. I have come here to try to be as much as possible », he maintained, saying that he wants to leave his « mark » on this team not only in the short term.
For now, the number he will have with the Angelenos is not known, nor is his debut date, but if he were to debut in the next LAFC game (on Sunday in Nashville), his first MLS match would almost coincide with his 33rd birthday, which will be Saturday.
Bale lands in Los Angeles after guiding Wales to the second World Cup in its history this June by defeating Ukraine in the playoffs for Qatar 2022.
In LAFC you will find the best team so far this season in MLS, which is the leader of the Western Conference with 39 points, which has the Mexican Carlos Vela in its ranks as a great reference and captain and which has just signed another European veteran flashy as the Italian defender Giorgio Chiellini.
“I am excited to be able to play with everyone and hopefully I can help improve the team,” he said after training for the first time on Monday.
“Our goal is to try and win a trophy and we will do everything we can to do that,” he added.
The Welshman also had words of praise for Vela (“what he has done for this team since he arrived is incredible”) and for Chiellini (“he is a great player, a great professional and a great ambassador of football”).
On the other hand, Bale praised the growth of MLS in recent years.
“The level is really growing. The quality is improving, the league is improving, the stadiums are improving, the teams are improving. It is a league that is really growing », he argued.
“I don’t think anyone sees it as a retirement league anymore. It’s really physical and demanding,” she added.
Although the one on Monday -45 minutes late- was the official presentation, Bale already had the opportunity to meet his new teammates and his fans on Friday when he went to the LAFC stadium as a spectator to see the victory of his team in the Los Angeles derby 3-2 against Javier ‘Chicharito’ Hernández’s Galaxy.
Very happy with everything he saw around him, Bale jumped onto the pitch in the run-up to greet the public and listen to the first chants in his honor and was also with his teammates after the final whistle celebrating the victory in style known as ‘The Traffic’.
Bale stated that the videos he had seen before arriving from the Banc of California stadium “do not do justice” to the great atmosphere he experienced with the LAFC fans.
“There are no words to describe it,” he assured of his reception.
FROM MADRID TO MLS
Bale’s landing in MLS puts an end to his nine-year relationship with Real Madrid in which he won a total of 19 titles, including five Champions Leagues and three leagues.
The Welshman arrived at the white club in 2013 and was part of the attack known as the BBC (Bale, Benzema and Cristiano).
Bale had moments of enormous brilliance in Madrid, such as the spectacular Chilean that he scored in 2018 in the Champions League final against Liverpool, which meant the thirteenth European crown for the Spanish team.
However, his decreasing weight in the team, injuries and a loan to Tottenham largely clouded his last years at Madrid.
Thus, in the 2021-2022 academic year, Bale only played five league games and two in the Champions League.
The murmurs and criticism at the Santiago Bernabéu about Bale’s commitment to the white team grew when the player celebrated Wales’ qualification for the European Championship in 2019 with a flag with an already famous motto: “Wales, golf and Madrid, in that order”. EFE
