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Gareth Bale has Championship experience from his Southampton playing days, and he’s looking for a return to the EFL to become a new Cardiff City co-owner.
Disaster struck for Cardiff City last season, with the Welsh giants relegated from the Championship down to League One for the 2025/26 campaign.
Cardiff were relegated to the third tier alongside Plymouth Argyle and Luton Town last term, and it was concerning Argyle that we first saw Gareth Bale’s name linked with an EFL takeover bid.
It emerged earlier in the summer that Bale was interested in buying Plymouth. However, it has now come to light that the Real Madrid legend is involved in a takeover bid of the Bluebirds.
With Bale’s consortium reportedly set to have their initial approach rejected, an EFL expert has predicted the role Bale would have at Cardiff.
Expert predicts role Gareth Bale will have in Cardiff City takeover
EFL Analysis’ football finance expert Adam Williams has already explained that Bale’s consortium would make a £117m move at Cardiff, in an attempt to shift the debt off the balance sheet.
In late June, Bale confirmed his Cardiff intentions and set sights on promotion to the Premier League, which would put an end to the current regime’s tenure.
However, Sky Sports now report that Cardiff owner Vincent Tan is set to reject a £20m bid from Bale’s consortium, which was under the value of the initial £40m reported fee. Despite this, Bale’s group is likely to come back with another bid.
Cardiff are the ‘worst run EFL club’ according to Ali Maxwell of the Not the Top 20 podcast, and his co-host George Elek has now explained the role Bale will play at Cardiff if the takeover bid materialises.
Elek told Dragon Sports: “He confirmed a couple of weeks ago, talking to Sky Sports, that he was interested in buying Cardiff City and the latest rumors are that a bid of £40million has been tabled.
“Now the first thing to look at is is this a continuation of a trend that we’ve seen in football ownership with celebrity owners. Tom Brady being one of those with Birmingham City, JJ Watt another, Luka Modric of course now a co-owner of Swansea City.
“My hunch reading Gareth Bale’s quotes and seeing the way that he’s almost fronting this consortium is that it’ll be less a case of him being a minority shareholder and basically a name to go alongside the consortium,
“It feels like he’s effectively fronting it and will be the face of it. Whether or not it’s his money, we don’t know. There’s very little known about where the money is coming from, apart from reports of it being American money, effectively.
“But it seems like he’s front and center of this deal, which is exciting in part and should mean that if it does go through, that he has some influence as to what goes on.”
Gareth Bale has difficult task to achieve his aims for Cardiff City
Bale confirmed his pursuit of a Cardiff takeover in June. He told Sky Sports: “It’s something I’m a part of.
“It’s a club close to my heart, it’s where I grew up and I would love to be a part of growing Cardiff and taking it to the Premier League, where it belongs.
“I know how amazing the Welsh fans, the Cardiff fans are and it’d be amazing to try and do stuff together.”
After Cardiff suffered relegation from the Championship last season, morale is at an all time low among the Bluebirds faithful.
The demotion to League One leaves Cardiff in a financial abyss, but Bale’s profile in the game could help to attract a better echelon of players, as well as better financial prospects for the Welsh giants.
Birmingham City and Wrexham have both prospered massively as a result of celebrity ownership, and the Cardiff faithful will be hoping that the Real Madrid icon’s next bid is accepted by Tan so that he can do the same in South Wales.