Gareth Bale has endured an unusual few seasons at Real Madrid, going from Champions League final hero to being perceived as an obsessive golfer in the space of two years.
He has fallen down the pecking order under Zinedine Zidane, but there is some light at the end of the tunnel as his purgatory period in Spain looks set to end with a return to Tottenham.
A star who was once the most expensive player in world football has seen his stock fall considerably and it's not just in the real world that it is reflected.
His rating on the EA Sports FIFA franchise continues to plummet. Goal takes a look at Bale's rating on the new FIFA 21 game and why things have changed.
What is Gareth Bale's FIFA 21 rating?
Gareth Bale's overall rating in FIFA 21 is 83. That is a decline from his rating on FIFA 20, which saw him ranked as an 85 overall.
The rating sees Bale fall well outside the top 100 players on the new game, behind the likes of Erling Haaland, Christian Eriksen and Jordan Henderson, among others.
| Attributes | Rating |
|---|---|
| Overall | 83 |
| Pace | 88 |
| Shooting | 84 |
| Passing | 82 |
| Dribbling | 80 |
| Defending | 58 |
| Physical | 73 |
With a rating of 83, Bale is 10 behind the best player on the game, Lionel Messi (93), and nine marks off his former Real Madrid team-mate Cristiano Ronaldo (92).
He is no longer one of the top players at Real based on the new rating, which sees him rated the same as players such as Martin Odegaard, Federico Valverde and Ferland Mendy.
Bale remains one of Wales' best players, with only Aaron Ramsey of Piemonte Calcio (Juventus) matching the winger's overall rating.
Other players in the RW position that Bale is considered lesser than in FIFA 21 are Benfica winger Pizzi (84), Napoli's Jose Callejon (84) and Bayern Munich star Serge Gnabry (85).
Why has Gareth Bale's rating dropped in FIFA 21?
The simple reason for Bale's rating drop on FIFA 21 is the perception that he has declined as a player in the past year as well as natural physical deterioration associated with age.
Indeed, Bale's troubles at the Santiago Bernabeu are well documented and he has faded into the periphery at the club, with supporters regularly getting on his back during games by booing his every touch.
He has not played as often as he might have liked over the course of the past two campaigns, leading to jibes from fans and team-mates about the idea that he prefers to play golf.
The decision by EA Sports ratings engineers to chop another two points from Bale's overall rating in the new game is arguably backed up by his diminishing game stats.
He made just 12 La Liga starts for Real Madrid in their title-winning campaign in 2019-20, scoring two goals, and played just three times in the Champions League, with just one start - in the 3-0 defeat to PSG.
Even his displays for Wales have been ordinary, with a return of two goals in nine appearances for his country in 2019.
By way of comparison, Bale had a much higher rating in FIFA 19, which was released after a season in which he scored 32 goals in 36 appearances for Madrid, as well as inspiring Champions League glory.
Gareth Bale's rating change on FIFA
Bale's new rating of 83 in FIFA 21 means that he has continued to decline as a player in the eyes of EA Sports and the FIFA gaming community.
His rating peaked at 90 four editions ago in FIFA 17 during a period when he was central to Real Madrid's success in the Champions League and La Liga.
| FIFA edition | Gareth Bale's rating |
|---|---|
| FIFA 21 | 83 |
| FIFA 20 | 85 |
| FIFA 19 | 88 |
| FIFA 18 | 89 |
| FIFA 17 | 90 |
However, it has dropped each year since then to 89 in FIFA 18, 88 in FIFA 19, 85 in FIFA 20 and now to 83 in FIFA 21.
Since Bale first appeared in the FIFA game series in FIFA 10 he has consistently been rated in the mid-to-high 80s and in his first season at Real Madrid he was rated 87 on FIFA 14.