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When Gareth Bale arrived at Real Madrid from Tottenham Hotspur in the summer of 2013, he was brought in for a then-new transfer record of £90.9 million. The first Welsh player in the history of Los Blancos was supposed to put the attack of the club to a new level. “BBC”, as the trio of Bale, (Karim) Benzema and (Cristiano) Ronaldo was called, flourished at times but Bale never really showed any consistency. Even after the sale of the Portuguese superstar, Bale failed to step up. He never really managed to settle in Madrid, and reportedly he is still unable to speak Spanish.
After five underwhelming years at the Bernabeu, Real supposedly want to sell their star, who once was hyped as the new Ronaldo. The fans do not like the player and manager Zinedine Zidane supposedly wants to get rid of him. Nevertheless, what are the key number behind his stay in Madrid, and were they bad?
225 - The Welshman has played 225 games so far for Real Madrid. This makes an average of 45 matches a season, which is not a particularly bad number. 149 of those came in La Liga, while 52 were played in the Champions League.
76 - In total, Bale missed 76 games in his time at Madrid. Therefore, he missed around a quarter of his possible minutes in Spain. 72 of those occurred due to injury, while he was suspended for 4 matches during this period.
78 & 42 - This is the number of goals and assists the ex-Tottenham Hotspur player has contributed in La Liga. He has been involved in 20.5% of the team’s goals. For example, Benzema, another part of the famed “BBC”, has only been involved in 18.5% of Real's league goals in these five years.
99 - Every 99 minutes, Bale has been involved in a goal for Real in all competitions. This number looks even better when you only cut it down to the league, where he has been able to do directly contribute to a goal every 93 minutes.
14 - The right-winger has won 14 titles during his spell in Spain. Four of those were the Champions League, while he has only been able to win the league once.
178.6 - If you consider his wage after taxes and without any bonuses plus his transfer sum, Bale has cost Los Blancos around £178.6 million so far (£87.7 million in wages and £90.9 million for the transfer)
10,905 - Gareth Bale has earned an astonishing £10,905 for every minute he has been on the pitch for the club.
2 - One of the reasons why Bale has never truly been loved in Madrid is the fact that he only scored two times against Barcelona in 11 El Clasicos. He has got twice as many yellow cards in those games than goals.
7 - Apart from the Champions League final in 2018, Bale has never really been a game changer for the club. He has only scored 7 game-winning goals in the league, with most of those strikes coming against opponents who were in the lower half of the table
Bale is and never was as bad a player as most people want to make him out to be. He is a decent scorer, who on his day can show why Real once paid £90.9 million for his services. The Welshman is good enough for the Spanish giants, but he is no Ronaldo and cannot carry the team when needed. If Madrid are able to find a replacement who can do so, it would make sense to sell the player as he is a stumbling block on the wage bill. However, if they are not able to find a replacement, a sale would not be too smart as he is still a Galactico.
