Champions League Final 2018, Real Madrid vs Liverpool FC.

More than an hour had already been played at the Olympic Stadium in Kyiv when Real coach Zinédine Zidane substituted on Gareth Bale when the score was 1-1.

Two minutes later, Real attacked, the Brazilian Marcelo flicking a cross from the left near the penalty spot.

There Bale jumps with his back to the goal, lies horizontally in the air and hits the ball with his strong left foot.

His overhead kick takes the perfect trajectory and lands in the top left corner of the goal.

It is still one of the most spectacular moments that Europe's top competition has produced.

A little later, Bale scores another goal, Madrid wins 3-1.

It's scenes like this that define Gareth Bale's career.

His goal in the 2014 Spanish Cup final against FC Barcelona is also unforgettable, when minutes before the end of regulation time he started a solo run down the left wing, took giant strides from his opponent and scored through the goalkeeper's legs to make it 2-1 .

Or his hat-trick for Tottenham Hotspur against Inter Milan in the 2010/11 Champions League group stage, when he landed three low shots just wide of the right post and Spurs still lost.

Bale announced the end of his career as a professional footballer this Monday.

The news didn't really come as a surprise, but it was sudden.

Aged 33, Bale is retiring from both club football and the Wales national team.

It was the most difficult decision of his career, Bale writes on social media, but he made it after careful consideration.

He does not go into detail about his future, but his resignation gives him the "opportunity for a new adventure".

His adventurous career began in the youth department of Southampton FC.

There he made his breakthrough to the professionals at the age of 16, and in 2006 he made his first appearances in England's second division.

A little later, in the summer of 2007, he moved to Tottenham in the Premier League.

There the then coach Harry Redknapp moved him from the position on the left side of defense to the front on the flank.

Bale blossomed.

In 2013, Real Madrid made him the most expensive footballer in the world at the time when the Spaniards paid over €100m for his transfer.

With Real, Bale won the Spanish championship three times and the Champions League five times, making him the most successful British professional footballer abroad.

After a season on loan back at Tottenham, he moved to Major League Soccer for Los Angeles FC, his final stop, in the summer of 2022.

Despite his merits, Bale never became a fan favorite at Madrid.

He made no secret of the fact that playing for Wales was more important to him than playing for the club.

With Bale's retirement, Wales will lose the best player to ever wear the Red Dragon crest shirt.

Nobody has made more appearances or scored more goals than the Cardiff man.

It was he who sensationally guided Wales to the semi-finals of Euro 2016 and it was largely thanks to him that Wales made it to Qatar 2022 after the small nation had failed to qualify for 64 years.

So it is only logical that Bale addressed a separate part to his "Welsh family" in the announcement about the end of his career.

"Being selected to play and captain for Wales gave me something that is unlike anything I've experienced," he writes.

"In the end, the dragon on the chest is all I need."