Hollywood star Will Ferrell helped to convince Gareth Bale that a spell in MLS with Los Angeles would not be Stranger than Fiction.
Bale signed a one-year contract with LA after Emmy Award-winning comedy actor Ferrell got in touch to persuade him that a move to the West Coast could become another chapter in his glorious career. Funnyman Ferrell, 55, is a co-owner of the club - and reached out to the Welsh international when he was weighing up his options after leaving Real Madrid.
Ferrell, star of films such as Anchorman, Elf and Zoolander, made a pitch that proved irresistible to the 33-year-old former Tottenham and Southampton forward after Bale’s advisers asked LA is they would be interested in signing the player after Wales had booked their place at the World Cup by beating Ukraine in June.
“I can't remember exactly what stage in the conversation it was but Gareth did receive a personal message from Will Ferrell,” revealed LA co-president John Thorrington.
Cardiff City had tried to lure Bale back to his South Wales roots so that he could maintain peak fitness in Qatar. But the chance to move to Hollywood proved irresistible. Bale has linked up with former Italy hardman Georgio Chiellini at LA. And on Wednesday, the pair have the chance to pile the pain on Wayne Rooney ’s struggling DC United.
LA are top of the Western Conference by six points and have a game in hand, while Rooney has gone back to Washington to take over as manager with the team cut seven points adrift at the bottom of the table. Bale and Chiellini were left out of the squad that thrashed Charlotte 5-0 at the weekend after a decision was taken to rest the pair.
But both will be back in the team to give Rooney a serious headache. Bale has signed a one-year contract with the option of a further 12 months. And Thorrington insists that the Welshman hasn’t crossed the Atlantic to take the money and keep himself fit for the World Cup.
Thorrington said: “I will tell you the absolute, honest truth: until I saw a signature I never believed it would happen. I got a message asking whether we would have any interest in Gareth and from there we had a substantive conversation with his representative.
“It was all fairly simple. I wouldn't even say we had to convince Gareth because it was just a frank and genuine exchange after we asked him what he wanted from the next stage of his career. Whether that's going into the World Cup, what he wanted beyond that and what we could offer him.
“Everything then aligned to the point where we could do the deal. We just had probably five or six conversations and I think each got us a step closer.”
Thorrington added: “If Gareth would have said to us ‘look, I just want to get to the World Cup’ we would have said ‘okay, let's talk about that’. But it was very clear to us that this was not just a short-term decision for Gareth and his family.
“He wanted to think longer term, which is why we structured the deal accordingly. It was very clear to us that Gareth's intent and desire was to find an agreement that extended beyond just the World Cup.”
