Gareth Bale Ready to Not Play for Two Years as He Digs in Heels Over Real Madrid Exit

Real Madrid forward Gareth Bale is ‘refusing to leave’ the club this summer and is even said to be prepared to wait another two years until his contract expires before he next plays.

With another season impacted by injuries, Bale fell horribly out of favour towards the end of the campaign as Madrid toppled Barcelona to win only a third La Liga title in the last 12 years.

The Welshman appeared in only two of the team’s final 14 league games of the season from March onwards and not at all in any of the last seven, remaining an unused substitute for most.

Bale also didn’t travel with the squad to face Manchester City in the Champions League last 16 second leg last week, with coach Zinedine Zidane conceding he ‘preferred not to play’. The likelihood is that had he willingly travelled, Bale wouldn’t have actually featured anyway.

But while it appears the 31-year-old, who was formerly the most expensive player in the world and has won four Champions League titles with Los Blancos, is at the point of no return, he doesn’t actually seem to be any closer to leaving the Madrid club.

The Daily Mirror reports that Bale refuses to leave, even if that means not playing at all at club level for the next two years while he remains under contract in the Spanish capital. The same report explains that Bale resisted travelling to Manchester because he ‘knew he would not get picked’.

In the most extreme scenario, it could mean that Bale continues to train and collect his mega salary, but doesn’t play another club game until 2022 when he is due to become a free agent.

Bale’s enormous wages are a problem for Real when it comes to trying to find a buyer as few, if any, clubs in the world would be willing to match his existing pay packet to sign him. A proposed move to Jiangsu Suning in China was called off by the Madrid hierarchy last summer because they demanded a transfer fee.

Bale is known to be very happy in Madrid and enjoys his lifestyle in Spain, while his agent, Jonathan Barnett, publicly ruled out a loan move when he spoke about the future last month.

“Gareth is fine. He has two years left on his contract. He likes living in Madrid and he is going nowhere. He is still as good as anyone else in the team. It's up to Zinedine Zidane,” Barnett said.

“Gareth is one of the best players in the world. The best players in the world do not go out on loan.”

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