{"id":405468,"date":"2025-09-07T14:43:25","date_gmt":"2025-09-07T14:43:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/405468\/"},"modified":"2025-09-07T14:43:25","modified_gmt":"2025-09-07T14:43:25","slug":"gareth-bale-to-make-return-to-football-two-years-after-bombshell-announcement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/405468\/","title":{"rendered":"Gareth Bale to make return to football two years after bombshell announcement"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 36-year-old will take to the pitch once again this month\"GarethBale will don his football boots once again this month(Image: Athena Pictures\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Gareth Bale will come out of retirement next weekend to play in his first charity match since hanging up his boots in 2023.<\/p>\n

The Wales icon called time on his career in January 2023, shortly after captaining his country in their first World Cup appearance in 64 years. Now 36, Bale will take to the pitch once again this month in South Korea as part of a star-studded match.<\/p>\n

The former Tottenham and Real Madrid star will feature for FC Spear against Shield United at the Seoul World Cup Stadium on September 13.<\/p>\n

FC Spear is comprised of a host of attacking talent, with Bale joined by the likes of Ronaldinho, Thierry Henry, Wayne Rooney and Kaka in the squad.<\/p>\n

As for Shield United, as you might have guessed by the name, the squad consists of some iconic defensive talent.<\/p>\n

Alessandro Nesta, Carles Puyol, Nemanja Vidic and Rio Ferdinand are just some of the names featuring.<\/p>\n

Former Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger is taking charge of FC Spear, while Rafa Benitez will manage Shield United.<\/p>\n

Shield United were able to win last year’s match 4-1, so FC Spear is looking for redemption in the rematch.<\/p>\n

Since retiring, Bale has been leading a consortium that has looked to buy Cardiff<\/a> City, while he has also been signed up by TNT Sports to work as a pundit this season – replacing former Manchester United defender Ferdinand.<\/p>\n

FC Spear’s full squad:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bum Young Lee, Gianluigi Buffon, Ja Cheol Koo, Ki Hyon Seol, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Clarence Seedorf, Eden Hazard, Franck Rib\u00e9ry, Wayne Rooney, Gareth Bale, Kak\u00e1, Steven Gerrard, Ronaldinho, Thierry Henry, Ji Sung Park, Didier Drogba<\/p>\n

Coach: Arsene Wenger<\/p>\n

Shield United full squad:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Young Kwang Kim, Iker Casillas, Alessandro Nesta, Michael Carrick, Marchisio, Gilberto Silva, Joo Ho Park, Sol Campbell, Claude Mak\u00e9l\u00e9l\u00e9, Ashley Cole, Maicon, John Arne Riise, Nemanja Vidic, Carles Puyol, Young Pyo Lee, Rio Ferdinand<\/p>\n

Coach: Rafa Benitez<\/p>\n

Tickets to the live experience sold out in just 20 minutes, but fans worldwide can catch the game on the web as well as through FC Mobile’s in-game broadcast channel. Both FC Mobile and FC Online will feature in-game events connected to the Icons Match.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 36-year-old will take to the pitch once again this monthBale will don his football boots once again…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":405469,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5010],"tags":[748,81145,4884,16,15,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-405468","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wales","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-gareth-bale","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom","13":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115163549352063286","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=405468"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405468\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/405469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=405468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=405468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=405468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}