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Gareth Bale on Real Madrid, Jose Mourinho and why he’s investing in women’s sports

We are several days into the World Cup and Gareth Bale, now retired and aged 36, has stopped by The Athletic’s office in Manhattan. Afterwards, he will head across the Hudson River to MetLife Stadium, where he will see Kylian Mbappe’s France open their campaign with a 3-1 victory over Senegal.

As the stars come out to play across North America, does any part of Bale, one of the greats of his generation, miss playing the game? “No, not really,” he says. “I always knew there was going to be a beginning and an end, and I’ve always prepared for the end. I didn’t want to just keep playing for the sake of playing.”

Bale retired aged 33, having emerged at Southampton, dazzled at Tottenham Hotspur, won five Champions League trophies at Real Madrid and lifted the MLS Cup during a brief stint at Los Angeles FC. He also carried Wales to the semi-final of Euro 2016 and his final act as a player was to appear for his country at the World Cup in Qatar in 2022.

After retirement, he says he stepped back from the sport for a couple of years, barely watching football at all after dedicating his life to it for decades. He occasionally has a kickabout with friends, but says tournaments at local golf clubs keep the competitive spirit burning. But he still has his views, whether on Jose Mourinho’s return to Madrid, or football’s evolution from a “basketball game” to a “chess game”.

“I had my time,” he says. “And to get to that point, you go through a lot to get there.

“It had been from the age of nine, in terms of a professional approach, and that can really take its toll, especially with the pressures. It was nice to take a step back and reset. Now I am coming back into watching it a bit more, my son (Axel) is a Real Madrid and Tottenham fan. It’s nice to enjoy it with him and not have a little bit of resentment towards it, which you can have towards the end of your career when you’re feeling a bit run down.”

Now, Bale is entering a new phase of life. He is accompanied by John Shulman, founder of Juggernaut Capital Partners, a Washington, D.C.-based private equity firm stated to have more than $1billion (£750m) in capital commitments. Juggernaut is now creating a dedicated sports investment vehicle, in partnership with Bale, which it says will seek to invest over $500million across “high-growth” opportunities in football teams, youth development, golf and experiential sports assets. Juggernaut already has investments in golf and women’s volleyball, as well as women’s lacrosse. Both mixed golf and lacrosse will be at the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.

The pair say an announcement about a first investment will come in the next months, expected to be in the U.S. and in a women’s team.

Bale has a first-hand view of the opportunities currently available to girls. He has two daughters, aged 10 and 13, who participate in netball, athletics, cricket, hockey, football and horse riding.

He says: “If you look at how I went through in an academy, that’s probably not the same in (all) women’s sport, so it is hopefully where we can fill in the blanks and try and build it out. We want to try and make it more accessible from a younger age. We want to give opportunities to girls just as much as boys. It should be an equal playing field and equal opportunity.”

Shulman says that men’s sports teams are at a “valuation range that is uninteresting to us”, saying that the lower valuations of women’s teams are “unjustified over the long haul”.

“This is fundamental logic,” he argues. “We’re going to move into the golden era of investing into women’s sports. It’s about time.”

While the fund will seek controlling stakes, Bale concedes he would be “very naive” to presume he could immediately operate a sports team. “I’m not that silly,” he says. “But I have come through a youth academy in the UK all the way up to where I got to, I can advise from an athlete’s side. I’ll start by trying to help from that side, learning and growing. I have my expertise in football, but it can translate into other sports, women’s sports, and youth setups.”

He says there were times when his clubs may have benefited from the advice of a former high-level athlete, particularly with the physical expectations placed on players. Having suffered a serious back injury at the age of 18, he endured physical challenges throughout his career, at one point brushing his teeth standing on his heels to minimise the injury risk to his calves.

He says: “You go through times in your career where you’re really pushed, even though you’re injured, to keep going. Sometimes you need someone to look after your well-being and then you can come out the other side stronger.”

While in Manhattan, Bale and his son Axel were in tourist mode, stopping for photos at the New York Stock Exchange and scaling the Empire State Building. Bale has played in the U.S. on the west coast for LAFC, an experience he said he enjoyed, but he found the lack of competitive tension during the regular season required adjustment.

“There’s no relegation, there’s no consequence to losing,” he says. “At Real Madrid, you lose a game, it is like the end of the world.

“I remember the first game we lost at LAFC, I was expecting this bombardment of pressure, maybe abuse and articles to be written. But losing is kind of accepted… because maybe there’s not such a big consequence but also it’s a different environment. They bounce back straight away and it’s go again. I enjoyed it. It’s a bit more family-friendly.”

On the field, Bale has also perceived a change in the sport, sensing the individual freedom that defined his game to be increasingly rare in modern players.

“Especially in the last five years, the manager has become a bit more dominant and it’s a bit more of a tactical approach. Football is not so much an end-to-end game now. It’s more of a chess game than a basketball game, which isn’t as exciting… you don’t see as much (dribbling) and the players don’t do it.

“Maybe that’s because the managers are telling them but there are still a handful of those players that can get you off your seat, like Mbappe, Lamine Yamal and Vinicius Jr. But maybe there’s just not as many because they’re not allowed to be.”

Madrid, Bale says, has a dressing room that “seems a bit all over the place”, having ended last season with internal turmoil and physical altercations between players. Mourinho, who coached Bale in the Welshman’s second spell at Tottenham, has now returned to the Spanish capital to take up the reins.

“By having that experienced head coach, like Carlo Ancelotti was, Jose will hopefully settle the group down and get them all on the same path,” says Bale. “Carlo was just a great man manager. He understands the psychology and the pressures that come with it. But he creates that relationship with you where you feel like he really cares about you. Sometimes players aren’t playing, but he knows how to keep them with him and keeps them motivated.

“At a big club like Madrid, you don’t need to really coach. You need to manage egos. That’s why he’s been so successful at the biggest clubs.”

Mourinho, from the outside, appears more of a provocateur than the current Brazil coach Ancelotti.

“He also has that experience,” Bale says of Mourinho. “He only prods to get the best out of you. He’ll try and figure each player out and find whatever it takes to make them tick. Sometimes it might be (prodding) someone in the media, sometimes it might be just putting an arm around them.

“Jose has been at Madrid, he understands the dynamic and he knows how things work. He’ll be putting a plan together to make that work.”

As for Spurs, he was watching with shredded nerves in the final weeks of the season. “I am glad the season is over,” he says. “Hopefully now it is a fresh start with Roberto De Zerbi, a good transfer window in the summer and not a third 17th-placed finish in a row. With a few more additions, especially attacking, it could be a very good team very quickly.

“Winning the Europa League papered over a few cracks (for the owners). They’ll probably now be looking at this transfer window as an opportunity to reinvest and get the squad back to where it belongs.”

This article originally appeared in The Athletic.

Los Angeles FC, Tottenham Hotspur, Real Madrid, Wales, MLS, Premier League, Soccer, La Liga, Sports Business, Women's Soccer

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