Gareth Bale, retired footballer famous for his Real Madrid stint where he won five Champions League titles and three LaLiga titles, as well as his 111 appearances for Wales between 2006 and 2022, taking his national team to two UEFA Euro and one World Cup appearances, hung up his boots in January 2023.
In 2016, when he signed a new contract with Real Madrid, he became one of the best paid footballers in the world. He's estimated a net worth as high as £120m/€138m, as per Wales Online. However, in an interview with Front Office Sports (via TalkSports), he admitted his fear... of going bankrupt.
"There was one thing that always scared me inside. You read articles about when people finish professional sports, they go bankrupt. They don't know how to manage their money, they don't know how to do all these things", Bale said.
"A lot of, I imagine, athletes live a big lavish lifestyle. I try not to do that. I always had one eye on what life would be like after football. When I finish, I stop getting the pay cheque. How do people then restructure their lives?
"So I was always trying to diversify from quite early on. I always had this pillar idea where I would try and invest my money in different things. If one pillar got chopped down and didn't work, the whole building is not going to fall down", the Welsh retired winger explained.
Some of these pillars include working as a pundit for TNT Sports, opening some bars themed to golf, and more recently tried to become an investor as part of a consortium in Cardiff City, his original club, but so far their ownership attempts have been rejected by current owner.
What do you think of millionaires talking about their fears of going bankrupt?