BALE

Gareth Bale not planning on leaving Real Madrid

The people who know Gareth Bale best are assured that the Welshman only has one goal in mind and that is to triumph at Real Madrid.

His immediate plans are to get in shape this preseason and have the best possible 2017/18 with Los Blancos.

"He is very eager," say his closest friends.

The possible arrival of Kylian Mbappe unleashed all sorts of rumours, both in Spain and England, about his departure from the Spanish capital, but Bale is oblivious to all the noise.

Accustomed to being in the eye of the hurricane, he does not tire of telling his inner circle that he is going to stay in Madrid, where he is happy on a daily basis and where he still has much to achieve on a footballing level.

It's true that at the beginning of the summer, Zinedine Zidane had let slip that Mbappe's signing was only possible if one of the members of BBC departed.

However, as of July 28, the possibility that it will be Bale who leaves is practically nil.

The club have not directed Bale to look for an exit nor is the player himself willing to do so voluntarily.

He renewed his contract last season until 2022 with the firm idea of a long career at Real.

Endorsed by the president and the board, the Welshman was therefore linked to the club until he turned 33.

"It's the contract of my life, I want to retire here," he said on October 30.

In addition, he became the second highest-paid player in the team earning almost 17 million euros net annually.

That's a galactic contract that he doesn't intend to rescind just nine months later and indeed, only one circumstance could motivate his departure this summer.

And that is if Florentino Perez, his great defender since he first came to the club, personally told him to leave.

Unlikely to occur because Florentino is still relying on him, if there's one thing that has also been a characteristic throughout his presidency, it's that the contracts signed by the players must be respected.

The player who has a contract and wants to continue in Madrid, continues, and the one who wants to leave, goes.

Both cases have occurred recently.

With Mariano - who did not want to leave under any circumstances - and with Morata this summer, when he asked the club to sell him.

Bale, who has not had a single conversation with another club since 2013, has been a starter in the first two games of the preseason and, although he has not shined, has shown that he has physically toned up after the holidays.

Suffering with injuries last year, this summer he has been careful to get to the start of the preseason in perfect condition.

Guarded at all times by the new medical services of the club and by Jaime Benito, his trustworthy physio, the No.11 expects to have a season free of injuries and to be able to demonstrate his full potential.