Bale: The top 11 moments of Real Madrid's No.11

Gareth Bale has bid farewell to Real Madrid after nine seasons in which great moments were mixed with several lows that dampened his time at the club.

Titles, goals and great performances were mixed with physical problems, questionable behaviour and doubts over his commitment to the club, who broke the bank to sign him from Tottenham Hotspur in 2013.

The good and the bad, we take a look at the most significant moments during Bale's Madrid career.

Signing, Gento's No.11 and his first goal

On September 1, 2013, Real Madrid and Tottenham finally agreed Bale's transfer fee after an intense summer of negotiations. The final figure of 100 million euros even surpassed the outlay for Cristiano Ronaldo. Madrid's confidence in the Welshman was such that he was given the No.11 shirt, which was made great by club icon, Paco Gento.

Bale made his debut with Los Blancos on September 13, 2013, scoring one of Madrid's two goals in an away draw against Villarreal.

The Mestalla goal

Bale's first big night as a Madrid player came on April 16, 2014, in the Copa del Rey final against Barcelona at the Mestalla.

With the match level, he received a pass from Fabio Coentrao and broke Marca Bartra for speed, before beating Pinto with a toe-poke. It was the 85th minute and the goal ended up giving the title to Carlo Ancelotti's Madrid, the first in white for the Italian coach.

La Decima

Just a few weeks later, Bale continued to justify his signing with his second great goal as a Madrid player. This time, in a Champions League final in which Madrid looked set for defeat.

Sergio Ramos' 93rd-minute winner made all the headlines, but Madrid fans won't forget it was Bale who made it 2-1 with a poacher's finish. Just a year after joining Madrid, Bale had won a European Cup, the club's first in 12 years.

The cramps in Milan

The following season (14/15) was Bale's best in terms of games played (48) but it ended without titles aside the Club World Cup trophy (in which he scored in the final against San Lorenzo).

In the 15/16 season, muscular problems became a reoccurring theme (he missed 15 games), but Zinedine Zidane was able to count on him in the final stretch of the season. He was by far the best Madrid player in another European final against Atletico, played a decisive role in Ramos' goal and scored Madrid's third penalty in the final shootout.

Injury in Lisbon and substitute in Cardiff

In the 16/17 season Bale suffered his most serious injury as a Madrid playe in a Champions League group stage match against Sporting Portugal in Lisbon.

An ankle injury kept him out of the field of play for three months, along with another 12 matches due to muscular problems. He lost his place in the team to Isco, who started in Cardiff, Bale's hometown, in the Champions League final against Juventus, though Zinedine Zidane was kind enough to play him in the final few minutes with the title secured.

Kiev heroics

In the 2018 final in Kiev, Bale gave his last great performance with Los Blancos. He was a substitute in the decisive match against Liverpool, but was crowned Man of the Match after two goals, one via a spectacular bicycle kick that is one of the best goals in a European Cup final.

This came after a poor season for the Welshman, who lost Zidane's confidence for good. Something broke between the player and the club, which was beginning to tire of his recurring physical problems and his preference for the Wales national team over Madrid.

Offer from China

Bale suffered five muscular injuries in 18/19 in a season that saw Cristiano and Zidane leave Madrid, brief spells under Lopetegui and Solari and the return of the French coach.

Relations between Zidane and Bale were so bad that the player considered leaving for Jiangsu Suning in the summer of 2019. The Asian club guaranteed him his salary, but Madrid stopped the sale due to the economic limitations on transfers imposed by Chinese legislation.

The banner

The following season Bale became a backup player, featuring in 20 games. Neither Zidane, nor the club or the fans could loop past his famous banner with the slogan 'Golf, Wales, Madrid, in that order', which occurred in November after qualifying for Euro 2020.

He played after a long absence (one month) with Madrid, and that incident definitively ended the relationship between Bale and the supporters.

Loan to Tottenham

The LaLiga Santander title win strengthened Zidane and opened the door for Bale to return to Tottenham on loan.

The winger returned to London with a knee injury and, despite recapturing his goalscoring form, he struggled to carve out a role for himself, much like in Madrid.

He scored 16 goals, but traded the glitz of the Champions League for the Europa League, a second-tier competition. In the end, the London club didn't make the move permanent, and he returned to Madrid.

Reduced role and missing out on the 35th league title

If Bale's role at Madrid had been progressively reduced since Kiev, in 21/22 he became an afterthought.

Not even the departure of Zidane and the return of Ancelotti, his first coach at the club, could change his role, which saw him reduced to less than 300 minutes in seven games.

Although Bale had asked the club to keep the cause of his injuries private, he suffered as many as seven throughout the season. The last, a back problem, prevented him from being at the Bernabeu when the team secured the 35th title in the club's history.