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By John Ogunsemore
Former Real Madrid winger, Gareth Bale has said the fear of going bankrupt in retirement influenced his financial decisions while in active football.
The 36-year-old Welshman stated this in a chat with Front Office Sports.
Bale retired from football in 2023, after a sterling career in which he won 20 major trophies, including five Champions League titles.
At the height of his career, he earned £600,000-a-week wages at Real Madrid and amassed a £120 million net worth.
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Yet, he feared he could go broke, which informed his decision to live modestly.
Bale said, “There was one thing that always scared me inside. You read articles about when people finish professional sports, they go bankrupt. They don’t know how to manage their money, they don’t know how to do all these things.
“A lot of, I imagine, athletes live a big lavish lifestyle. I try not to do that. I always had one eye on what life would be like after football. When I finish, I stop getting the pay cheque. How do people then restructure their lives?
“So I was always trying to diversify from quite early on. I always had this pillar idea where I would try and invest my money in different things. If one pillar got chopped down and didn’t work, the whole building is not going to fall down.”
