Could Gareth Bale join Cardiff City from LAFC in summer of 2023?

Major League Soccer club Los Angeles FC confirmed expected news on Monday by announcing that Real Madrid superstar forward Gareth Bale had put pen to paper on a one-year deal that includes options through 2024. Bale will use MLS action to prepare to feature for Wales at this fall's FIFA World Cup, but he was previously linked in some transfer chatter with championship club Cardiff City. 

Bale, 32, was born in Cardiff, and Cardiff City owner Vincent Tan told talkSPORT that the five-time UEFA Champions League winner could possibly feature for his hometown club during the 2023-24 season. 

"His contract is for 12 months, let's see what happens," Tan said, per a Sky Sports story. "Maybe Gareth, by then, will probably want to come back and come home and serve his country, serve Cardiff, his hometown. He has never played in Cardiff, he and his family are fans of the club. 

"So, hopefully, in 12 months' time, he is still young, he will only be 34, some players come back and play until they are 40 years old. So he has still got a few years he can play and hopefully he will come and play for Cardiff after this (contract with LAFC finishes)."

Tan added that "LAFC's offer was too attractive" for Bale to reject in favor of a move to Cardiff. 

"We came up with what we thought was a good offer to him, but finally it was very hard to compete when there is a lot of big American advertisers, a lot of commercial deals which were very good for Gareth," Tan explained. "Initially with Gareth, it wasn't really the money, he just wanted to help Cardiff and help Wales. That's why we could negotiate with him.

"He tried his best to join us but eventually I think the offer from LAFC was just too big to turn down. We tried our best but we failed."

For a piece published on June 4, ESPN reported that Bale was "ready to retire from football" had Wales not qualified for the Qatar World Cup, as he dealt with multiple injury problems throughout much of his Real Madrid tenure that ran from 2013 through this spring. It's unclear if he has any desire to play in Europe once more, let alone for a club that may not be in a top-flight league by this time next year.