Gareth Bale once had the option to move to a dominant Manchester United side during the early stages of his career, but the Welsh talisman ended up turning down the great Sir Alex Ferguson
Gareth Bale watched on with a smile as his old club Tottenham Hotspur lifted their first trophy in 17 years after defeating Manchester United. But the Welshman's story could have been very different had he not turned down the chance to join the Red Devils over the north London side.
Almost two decades ago, a young Bale was catching eyes from full-back, scoring five goals and assisting 12 times across 45 appearances for then-Championship side Southampton. New Spurs chairman Daniel Levy was interested, but he faced stiff competition from Premier League giant Sir Alex Ferguson and his Manchester United boardroom.
Bale decided to turn down Ferguson, though, and head to north London in 2007 instead, telling his Airwayz channel in 2023 that this decision actually led to his success rather than any potential downfall.
The 35-year-old said: "I rejected Manchester United and went to Tottenham. At that time, United were the biggest team in the league, they were winning trophies, they had the biggest players, the best manager.
"The easiest decision would be to go to Man United and the biggest club. You always want to be at the biggest clubs but I took the approach that I wanted to be playing first-team football."
But Bale bucked the trend; he chose Spurs and spent six seasons carving out a move from left-back to creative forward, scoring 42 goals in 142 appearances and impressing throughout his time in the Premier League.
From there, the Welshman carved out a sensational transfer to Spanish giants Real Madrid in 2013 for a then-world record fee of £85million. He joined superstars like Cristiano Ronaldo, Angel Di Maria, Karim Benzema, Sergio Ramos, Casemiro and Luka Modric in the famous white kit, and spent nine seasons with the club.
In this time, Bale scored 106 goals in 258 appearances, winning five Champions Leagues, three La Liga titles and a host of other honours. The attacker spent one season back on loan to Spurs, before joining Los Angeles FC and retiring in 2023 as one of the greatest players in both Welsh and footballing history.
So while many would assume Bale would regret the decision to snub Ferguson and his Red Devils – who won the Premier League title under Sir Alex in 2008, 2009, 2011 and 2013 – for Spurs, the retired winger insisted that a need for consistent game time at a young age was more important to him than money and glory.
He added: "At that age, a lot of players would go for the money and would want to go to a bigger club.
"But I was playing, developing and learning. It was an important part of my development to keep playing first-team football because you can't replicate that."
Now, it seems that Bale will have the last laugh over the team that could've been but wasn't, as he made a sly joke at United's expense following their damaging European defeat this week.
During TNT Sport's broadcast of Spurs' 1-0 Europa League final win, Bale was questioned on whether this win will get rid of the 'Spursy' tagline that the club are serial losers.
He was quick to respond at United's woes, as he said: "It could be a United-y thing now, I am telling you. But it gets rid of that stigma now for sure, and hopefully we can build on it."