Gareth Bale opens up about his relationship with Cristiano Ronaldo at Madrid

Real Madrid v Liverpool - UEFA Champions League Final
Real Madrid v Liverpool - UEFA Champions League Final

What is the story?

Wales superstar Gareth Bale has finally spoken out about his relationship with the Portuguese winger during their glory days at Santiago Bernabéu.

Bale has insisted that he never had any issues with Ronaldo and hailed him as an “incredible player”.

In case you didn’t know….

The 29-year-old Wales winger has been going through a torrid time since the departure of Ronaldo. He has struggled to make his presence felt in the absence of the Portuguese superstar and received a fair bit of criticism from the Bernabéu faithfuls.

Bale has only made 25 starts this season due to his fragile fitness along with the knack of picking up niggles during the game. The Welshman was booed badly by their own sets of supporters during their recent loss in the hands of their arch rivals Barcelona where, Bale failed to make an impression on the field as Madrid lost two El Clásicos on the trot as their season practically ended in the beginning of March.

The link-up between the duo was always been questioned by the Spanish media and it was believed that their relationship was kind of grumpy and not always at the same wavelength.

The heart of the matter…

In a recent interview with BT Sports (via Daily Mirror), Bale said:

"Cristiano is an incredible player, I thoroughly enjoyed playing with him."

"Obviously the media try and hype up these problems which were never there. We got on really well.”

"He's an incredible player and what he did for the club with the amount of goals he scored. An incredible player and he is still going now."

He has also “appreciated” Tottenham’s contribution in the development of his career, by confessing,

"I appreciated everything Tottenham had done for me, but I think they did understand at the time that when such a big club comes in for you like Real Madrid it is difficult to turn them down."

What’s Next?

It will be fascinating to see what lies ahead in the future for the Welshman after Zinedine Zidane’s return in the managerial hot seat of Real Madrid but for now on, Bale will focus on to face Slovakia in UEFA EURO Qualifiers for Wales.

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Edited by Aaditya Narayan