Man Utd’s World Record Gareth Bale Bid Is Finally Revealed—But it Was Always Destined to Fail

The Tottenham Hotspur star became the most expensive player in history in 2013.

Gareth Bale won multiple Champions League titles with Real Madrid. | Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images

Gareth Bale “really wanted” to join Real Madrid in 2013, which meant even Manchester United blowing Los Blancos out of the water with a better offer to Tottenham Hotspur was never going to get the Welsh superstar to Old Trafford.

Bale reached superstardom for his 2012–13 campaign with Spurs, completing an individual quadruple of PFA Players’ Player of the Year, PFA Young Player of the Year, FWA Footballer of the Year and Premier League Player of the Season only otherwise achieved by Cristiano Ronaldo (2006–07). That was no mean feat considering Robin van Persie scored 26 Premier League goals in his debut season for Manchester United to steer the club to the title.

Signing Bale made perfect sense for the Red Devils, with Ronaldo sold four years earlier, Ryan Giggs about to turn 40, Nani coming off the back of an injury-blighted season and Shinji Kagawa not a natural winger. So much so, they were willing to pay big, big money.

The story that United were willing to outbid Real Madrid to make it happen is well established and has been told and retold for 13 years. But André Villas-Boas, who was Spurs’ manager at the time, has now given an insight into the specifics of the offer on the table.

“Gareth Bale had the offer from Real Madrid. I remember Man United called at the last minute because [Spurs chairman] Daniel Levy came to my office,” the Portuguese explained on The Obi One Podcast, with his former Chelsea player, John Obi Mikel.

“[Manchester United] were paying 120 [million], and Gareth did not want to go … he wanted to go to Real Madrid. For me, it was indifferent [which club he joined]. We were in Hong Kong during preseason. Gareth was protecting himself because he really wanted this transfer to happen. Real Madrid were pushing a lot.”

Villas-Boas didn’t specify a currency. But it’s reasonable to believe he was talking in euros, given that was the currency Real Madrid were dealing in.

Real Madrid put down €100 million ($114 million at today’s rate), which was a world record fee surpassing Ronaldo’s 2009 transfer to the Spanish capital. A United offer worth €120 million ($136.5 million) was still a much larger proposal and enough of a statement, whereas £120 million ($159 million today) would have been unnecessarily astronomical.

The figure of €120 million also appeared sporadically in press reports over the subsequent years whenever interest in Bale was rumored to be rising again.

“I remember at the end of [Tottenham’s] Asia tour, after the game, he was in the physio room. I went to his physio bed, picked up my pen and wrote ‘Real Madrid’ and ‘Man United’—which one. And he chose. He chose wisely,” Villas-Boas recalled.

“Without disrespect, but he really wanted that move. I think Real Madrid is the winner of all Champions Leagues—he contributed decisively to winning those titles. It was a difficult decision, but acceptable. David Moyes also wanted him, but Gareth ended up making a good choice. Either of them would have been great choices for sure.”

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Why Man Utd Outbid Real Madrid for Gareth Bale

Bale was worth paying big money for. | Getty Images

Bale himself spoke about the 2013 saga only a few months ago while a guest on Gary Neville’s Stick to Football. He admitted there was never a chance he was going to Manchester United, even though confirming that the offer to Spurs was indeed bigger.

“I did talk to United. I spoke with David Moyes. I didn’t speak [with executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward], maybe my agent did. But my heart was set on Madrid anyway.”

There was another reason Bale didn’t head to Manchester, and perhaps why United felt they needed to offer far more than Real Madrid to even have a chance.

There was a “gentleman’s agreement” in place with Daniel Levy that he wouldn’t be sold to a domestic rival but could move overseas. “If a team did come in [for me] from Spain, Italy, Germany, wherever, I could potentially go.” Levy employed the same tactic a decade later when Harry Kane joined Bayern Munich, having steadfastly refused to let the striker join Manchester City in 2021.

The irony is that United, whose record signing remains Paul Pogba’s £89 million ($118 million) transfer from Juventus in 2016, have still never spent as much on a player as they were seemingly willing to for Bale that summer.

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Man Utd’s 2013–14 XI With Gareth Bale

Bale primarily played on the left for Spurs. | FotMob

The summer of 2013 felt like a sliding doors moment for Manchester United. Sir Alex Ferguson had just retired and, outside of the Bale saga, the club was unable to complete a deal for Cristiano Ronaldo that had at one stage looked likely to happen.

Moyes also wanted Cesc Fàbregas from Barcelona. He stayed but joined Chelsea a year later. Everton’s Leighton Baines was the plan to begin replacing an aging Patrice Evra at left back.

Signing Bale might later have negated the need to spend big on Ángel Di María in 2014. The Argentine was an exceptional signing on paper but never really wanted to leave Real Madrid. A few blistering performances at the beginning aside, he struggled on the field, didn’t settle off of it, and was gone—to Paris Saint-Germain—just a year later.

United were still a team in need of rebuilding when Moyes took over, but Bale being put into an attack with Wayne Rooney operating as a No. 10, Robin van Persie still producing in the No. 9 role and the direct, electric Antonio Valencia on the opposite flank might have altered history and been a catalyst for more positive change to come in the years that followed.

In reality, the team as it was struggled to compete and Moyes lost his job after 10 months.

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