How much does Gareth Bale earn and what is the Wales legend's net worth?
Cameron Smith
- Updated: 1 Jun 2022 13:17 BST
- 7 min read
Gareth Bale is one of the greatest British exports in football history, with five Champions League trophies to his name during his time at Real Madrid after leaving Tottenham Hotspur.
Bale scored three goals in those Champions League finals and also has three La Liga title wins under his belt in Spain.
He is set to become a free agent, however, when his contract with Los Blancos ends of 30 June. Writing on social media on 1 June, Bale confirmed that the 2021/22 season at the club was his last.
It will be the end of what has been an impressive chapter in the attacker's career - even if he has at times caused controversy.
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The Wales international started his professional career at Southampton before joining Tottenham as a 17-year-old in 2007. Bale had already made his senior Wales debut a year before moving to Spurs, and has since totalled up over 100 caps for his country.
Bale arrived at Tottenham as a left-back, but was moved into a more advanced position in 2010 by Harry Redknapp. He memorably scored his first professional hat-trick at the San Siro against reigning Champions League winners Inter Milan during Tottenham’s 2010/11 campaign. Bale also won the PFA Players’ Player of the Year award that year following his performances during the 2010/11 Premier League season.
After winning the same prize for the 2012/13 season after 30 goal contributions in 30 games, Bale earned himself a world-record transfer to Real Madrid worth €100 million, eclipsing the previous highest transfer fee which was held by Cristiano Ronaldo.
Despite recent injury problems, Bale remains a huge star in world football and has earned a large financial gain during his career. FootballTransfers reveals all below.
What is Gareth Bale’s net worth?
Bale is believed to have a net worth of roughly $145 million. That equates to around €134m or £113m at the time of writing.
That is higher than France World Cup winners Paul Pogba and Kylian Mbappe, however, it does fall short of the figures both Lionel Messi and Bale’s former Real Madrid team-mate Cristiano Ronaldo can boast.
World-record transfer to Real Madrid
In 2013, Bale broke the world transfer record, setting a new highest fee paid for a player when he left Tottenham for Real Madrid for €100m (£85m). He was one of the standout players in the Premier League, and similar to their move to Ronaldo, Real Madrid poached arguably the English top flight’s most talented player.
With Ronaldo on the left wing and Karim Benzema playing through the middle, Bale slotted in on the right wing to form the famous BBC trio at Real Madrid.
During his first season at the club Bale helped Carlo Ancelotti’s side win the Champions League and the Copa del Rey. Bale scored in both finals including a memorable winner against Barcelona in the Copa del Rey final. He picked the ball up inside his own half, powered past defender Marc Barta, who forced him off the pitch in his attempts to thwart Bale, before poking it past the goalkeeper.
Bale was reportedly clocked at 21.54mph during the sprint and Usain Bolt even commented afterwards, saying: “A goal any sprinter in the world would like to score. He’s the fastest footballer in the world.”
Those trophies in his debut season make up two of the 1 trophies Bale has won during his Real Madrid career.
How much does Gareth Bale earn?
Although Bale joined Real Madrid back in 2013, Los Blancos still needed to offer the Wales international a hefty wage packet in order to convince him to leave Tottenham.
Forbes estimated that Bale earned $25.2m through his salary, victories and endorsements in 2020, which placed him in 73rd place for the list of the highest-paid athletes during that year.
Bale’s salary is $19.7m per year, while the rest was made up of other income streams. Bale signed a contract extension at Real Madrid in 2016, keeping him at the club until June 2022 on a salary that could reach $33m per year if bonuses are met.
With his Real Madrid contract set to in 2022, Bale's future earnings are unclear.
Based on 2020 figures, Bale earned $2.1m per month at Real Madrid, with his salary and endorsements included in that figure. That means Bale earns $485,000 per week, just over $69,000 per day and slightly more than $2,800 per hour.
Who sponsors Gareth Bale?
Bale was sponsored by sports brand Adidas between the years 2014 and 2020 after signing a six-year deal worth a reported £20m per year. However, this deal came to an end after six years in 2020 as it wasn’t renewed. Bale can still be seen wearing Adidas boots when he plays for Real Madrid, though. He currently wears the Adidas X 19.1 boots.
The forward also previously wore the Adidas F50 cleat.
Bale has also played a major part in Nissan’s coverage of the Champions League in years gone by. He has worked with companies such as Lucozade, BT Sport, EA Sports and Konami during his time at Real Madrid.
He was the cover star for Konami’s official Euro 2026 video game and was the lead for Lucozade’s ‘I believe’ campaign.
Bale has also been sponsored by Foot Locker, Sony, Altitude Mask and British Rowing.
The Real Madrid forward is sponsored by golf company TaylorMade and has promoted them on his Instagram. He also used their clubs during lockdown when he posted videos of him recreating shots into famous golf holes.
He has also worked with Unicef.
Bale is represented by super-agent Jonathan Barnett, who earned $142.3M in 2020 according to Forbes. Barnett also represents Saul Niguez and Ben Chilwell.
What businesses does Gareth Bale have?
In 2020, Bale launched his own esports team called Ellevens Esports in order to compete at the FIFA eClub World Cup.
He runs a firm called Primesure Ltd with his parents, with Bale owning 60% of the shares and his mother and father taking home 20% each.
Bale has his own Elevens Bar and Grill in Cardiff and in March 2020 he opened Par59 bar, a mini-golf and restaurant venue.
What are Gareth Bale’s cars and assets?
As with most famous football players, Bale has an envious collection of cars. According to reports, he owns four supercars with each a different brand.
Bale has been pictured driving a Bentley Continental GT, a Mercedes SLS AMG, an Audi Q7 50 TDI and a Lamborghini Huracan over the past few years, although reports suggest these were rented for a few months before being traded for a new car.
However, he reportedly was forced to stop driving his Lamborghini in particular due to hamstring injuries caused by the car.
Bale currently lives in a £6.5m mansion in the exclusive La Finca neighbourhood, which also homes Karim Benzema. Cristiano Ronaldo and Zinedine Zidane both used to live in the area as well. Kaka even rented the exact same house as Bale during his time at Real Madrid.
It has been reported that Bale pays £10,000-per-month in rent to live in his current pad.
How many followers does Gareth Bale have on social media?
As one of the world’s most famous football players, Bale has an understandably large following on all forms of social media.
The Wales international has a huge 47.1m followers on Instagram, as of June 2022. He uses this platform for brand deals and to share matchday and training pictures of him at both club and country level.
On Twitter, Bale can boast 18.9m followers at the time of writing, which is more than Real Madrid team-mate Karim Benzema.
Bale also has an official Facebook page with 33m followers on that platform. This contains the same content as his Instagram account.
