World Soccer – August 2019

(Amelia) #1

Zidane’s treatment of Gareth Bale is a mystery


It has been reported that Real Madrid


blocked a move to China for Welsh


international attacker Gareth Bale.


Jiangsu Suning are hardly a big name,


but with an offer of over a million pounds


a week you can hardly blame Bale for


being interested. Still only 30 years old,


he should have a good many effective


seasons in front of him, yet it is


understandable that he was ready, on


such magnanimous terms, to plunge into


what might be called “gilded obscurity”.


To give Bale his due, he had been


quite ready to stay at Real Madrid, and it


remains somewhat strange that Zinedine


Zidane is so anxious to get rid of him.


Jonathan Barnett, who is Bale’s agent,


accused Madrid manager Zidane of being


Premier League club’s owner Mike Ashley
said: “He took the soft option, took the
money and went to China.”
Soft option? In terms of cash it was
surely a very tempting one. A manager,
far less than a player, has comparatively
little to lose by such a move.
The irony is that Chinese football just
never seems to improve. Where are the
Chinese players in European or South
American football? Perhaps it is coaches
rather than leading players who are
needed for football to develop there
after so many years of sterility.

disrespectful to his client. Bale has
played for six largely successful years
in Spain and letting him go made all the
less sense when you take into account a
serious injury and protracted absence of
another key Real attacker in the shape
of Marco Asensio.
Zidane seems to have behaved in a
high-handed way, not giving Bale any
intimation of why he was so keen to get
rid of him. He may well live to regret it.
When Bale came off the bench as a
substitute to score against Arsenal in
a friendly it emphasised the mystery
of Zidane’s behaviour.
After Rafa Benitez left Newcastle
United for a deal worth over £12million
a year to manage Dalian Yifang, the

THE VOICE OF FOOTBALL


Brian


GLANVILLE


Unwanted...
Gareth Bale

It is understandable that Bale was ready, on such


magnanimous terms, to plunge into what might


be called “gilded obscurity”


High-handed...
Zinedine Zidane
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