How Gareth Bale earned almost R2 million-a-minute at Real Madrid

Gareth Bale has recently signed for Los Angeles FC in the United States, after a final season at Real Madrid in which he might well have spent more time on the golf course than he did playing for Los Blancos.

ALSO READ: Chelsea closing in on deal for Sterling

Bale’s love of golf was well-documented during an inconsistent spell at Real, where he certainly had his successes, but drifted out of the side in the final years of his contract, even spending a loan-spell at Tottenham in the English Premier League in the 2020/21 campaign.

Last season he was back at Madrid, however, and played only 290 minutes of football, not really enough time for much more than one round of golf.

In a study done by Sportingpedia, they have taken Bale’s huge salary at Madrid (about R10.6 million-a-week) and worked out that for the time he spent on the field last season, the Welshman earned about R1.9 million per minute that he was on the pitch.

According to the criteria of salary paid and playing time, Bale was far and away the highest earner across Europe’s top leagues last season, with his Real Madrid teammate Eden Hazard, who spent much of the campaign injured, coming in next at about R442 000.

Lionel Messi is far-and-away the best paid footballer in the world, salary-wise, earning an absolutely absurd R1.93 million a week at Paris St Germain. But the Argentine superstar did play 34 times for PSG last season, at about R350 000 a minute.

Below are the top ten earners in European football in the 2021/22 campaign: and what they were paid for every minute they played

David De Gea (Manchester United) – £375,000 per week; 46 games played – 4,140 playing minutes; £4,710 per playing minute

Philippe Coutinho (Barcelona/Aston Villa): £380,000 per week; 35 games played; 1,946 playing minutes; £10,154 per playing minute

Eden Hazard (Real Madrid): £381,000 per week; 23 games played; 903 playing minutes; £21,940 per playing minute

Kevin De Bruyne (Manchester City): £385,000 per week; 45 games played; 3,338 playing minutes; £5,997 per playing minute

Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United): £385,000 per week; 39 games played; 3,221 playing minutes; £6,215 per playing minute

Kylian Mbappe (Paris Saint-Germain): £410,000 per week; 46 games played; 3,912 playing minutes; £5,449 per playing minute

Gareth Bale (Real Madrid): £528,000 per week; 7 games played; 290 playing minutes; £94,676 per playing minute

Oscar (Shanghai Port): £540,000 per week; 22 games played; 1,854 playing minutes; £15,124 per playing minute

Neymar (Paris Saint-Germain): £606,000 per week; 28 games played; 2,328 minutes of playing time; £13,536 per playing minute

Lionel Messi (Paris Saint-Germain): £960,000 per week; 34 games played; 2,872 minutes of playing time; £17,381 per playing minute