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Gareth Bale has been offered a bizarre incentive to join his hometown club of Cardiff City.
The 32-year-old winger is searching for a new club after his contract expired at Real Madrid, where he enjoyed nine incredibly successful seasons and became the first British man to win the Champions League five times.
BBC Sport have reported that Bale's representatives have held talks with the Bluebirds, as the Welsh captain aims to build up his fitness ahead of his country's first World Cup appearance since 1958 in Qatar later this year.
While a transfer from the European champions to a Championship side may seem like a huge step down, the local sports team has chipped in to help the local hero join the first Welsh club side of his illustrious career.
Brian Parker, who owns the Ice Hockey side Cardiff Devils, has offered the legendary forward a free season ticket, with Parker tweeting:
Ally McCoist believes Gareth Bale should not drop down to the Championship
The veteran forward has scored some iconic goals for club and country over the past decade, but numerous injury problems have led many to believe that Bale is not the player he once was.
However, Rangers icon McCoist has advised the Welshman that somewhere such as Newcastle United may be a better option for him at this stage of his career, as the pundit told TalkSPORT:
"I’m looking at it and clearly there’s absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to go back and play for your hometown club. “I think it’s admirable, to say the least."
He added:
“However I still feel that he’s got an awful lot to offer at the highest level, I really do. You watch him in the internationals and he’ll be all geared up for the World Cup in Qatar and I just think that surely there are Premier League clubs out there. Automatically, I just think that Newcastle would be ideal.”
The former Tottenham star took the free-kick as Andriy Yarmalenko headed into his own net which secured the crucial victory for Wales over Ukraine in the World Cup play-off encounter at the Cardiff City Stadium.
The Welsh team will take on the USA, Iran and arch-rivals England in the group stage of the tournament.
