90min

Gareth Bale Celebrates With a 'Wales. Golf. Madrid.' Flag - And the Madrid Press Hate it

By Jamie Spencer

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‘Wales. Golf. Madrid. In that order.’

Gareth Bale revelled in celebrations with his teammates on Tuesday night, as Wales booked their place at Euro 2020 with a qualifying win over Hungary. 

But these weren't any old celebrations. 

It's become a running joke that Bale prefers his national team and playing golf over his life at the Bernabeu (there's even a song by Welsh f​ans about it), and this week’s post-match celebration in Cardiff really does seem to reflect that. Bale himself has also admitted he finds if amusing.

Outstanding work, then, to dance around with a Welsh flag that actually says 'Wales. Golf. Madrid. In that order' in front of thousands of people and the TV cameras.

The Spanish media and Real supporters haven’t seen the funny side though.

Especially considering that Bale has been nursing an injury in recent weeks and his appearances to captain Wales in their final two qualifiers were his first games since 5 October. The 30-year-old has been forced to miss Real’s last six games in all competitions.

Marca have already accused Bale of ‘trolling’ the club by celebrating with the flag.

Bale, who caused further anger in Spain when he recently revealed he has ‘more excitement’ playing for Wales than Real, insisted ahead of the international break that he would have been in action for Los Blancos had there been a game on.

But that shouldn’t count again him when playing for his country instead.

“If I’m fit, no matter where I am, I’m going to try and play, whether it be for Wales or Madrid. For me it was a no-brainer: if I’m fit to play then I’ll give it my all,” the player explained.

As things stand, Bale will be back in action for Real on Saturday evening when Real Sociedad make the trip from the Basque coast to the Spanish capital.

It remains to be seen what the long-term future will hold for Bale, whose proposed summer move to China collapsed when Real pulled the plug. He is under contract until 2022.

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