Gareth Bale’s agent has admitted the deal to take his client from Real Madrid back to Tottenham is proving “complicated.” Bale is reportedly still in Spain waiting for the move to be tied up before he will fly on his private jet to London to complete a loan deal in which Spurs will pay a large chunk of his wages. But Jonathan Barnett has insisted the deal is not yet done and told Sky Sports News: “There’s a long way to go on some issues.

Gareth Bale and Real Madrid both need to seize the moment to move the Wales captain back to Tottenham Hotspur, according to the Spanish club’s former president Ramon Calderon. Bale’s representatives are working on a deal to take the striker back to Spurs in a loan deal that could cost his former club £20m. The 31-year-old swapped the north London club for the Spanish capital in 2013 for £86m, winning four Champions Leagues during a medal-laden stint at the Bernabeu.

Gareth Bale will be fit for Wales’ Nations League game with Bulgaria on Sunday after Ryan Giggs admitted his half-time withdrawal in the 1-0 win over Finland was planned. Wales captain Bale lasted only 45 minutes on his first start since February after finding himself out of favour at Real Madrid amid a worsening relationship with manager Zinedine Zidane. But Wales boss Giggs said his talisman’s early exit was “no problem” and that he had been substituted with Bulgaria’s visit to the Cardiff City Stadium in mind.

With Wales set to face Finland in the Nations League opener on Thursday, former striker John Hartson tells Steffan Thomas how the exciting current crop of youngsters can exceed the achievements of those who have gone before them. John Hartson insists Wales have a golden generation of youngsters to rival the likes of Gareth Bale […]

Gareth Bale is donating almost £1m to assist health workers combating coronavirus in both Wales and Spain. The Wales captain and his wife Emma have made a £500,000 donation to help NHS staff fighting the crisis in Cardiff and will follow that up with a further €500,000 for the health service in Madrid, where he and his family have been on lockdown since 14 March. Bale made the donation to the Cardiff and Vale Health University health board and released a video thanking NHS staff for their work amid the crisis.

Gareth Bale’s return to football in La Liga has been branded a complete “a non-starter” by Barcelona coach Quique Setien. The Barca chief is pessimistic that the Spanish top flight season will be able to be completed and has dismissed the league’s conditions for the return of football due to the continued threat of coronavirus. Wales and Real Madrid star Bale has been sidelined with other players in Spain since La Liga was put on hold on March 10 due to the pandemic, although president Javier Tebas has said matches could start up again on either May 29, June 7 or June 28, most likely without fans.

Whitchurch High School is known for producing all-conquering Welsh sporting talent. Champions League winner Gareth Bale, Lions and Wales’ Grand Slam-winning captain Sam Warburton and Tour de France champion Geraint Thomas were all pupils. But before any of them was Bale’s uncle – Chris Pike – and as Josh Thomas discovered, the former Cardiff City striker achieved his own notable first at the school. Before Bale, before Warburton, before “G”, there was Pike. Chris Pike, a Whitchurch High School pupil, who, together with his teammates, managed something no others had done before or since. “We had a lot of good players, who used to play in the Combination League,” says Pike, now 58, who attended the famous Cardiff school between 1973 and 1978.

Gareth Bale has picked up another injury playing for Real Madrid that threatens to further disrupt his season in Euro finals year. The Wales star has an ankle problem which forced him to leave the field during his club’s victory over Unionistas de Salamanca, 3-1, in the Copa del Rey on Wednesday night. Bale scored the opening goal but was unable to continue beyond the 53rd minute and manager Zinedine Zidane said the new injury will need to be assessed.

Gareth Bale’s flag-gate moment that enraged Real Madrid fans is “in the past” according to Zinedine Zidane, who looks set to turn to his Wales star for the first El Clasico of the season on Wednesday. Bale was given a rough reception by some supporters when he returned to Spain following TV pictures of his celebrations last month after Wales had qualified for the Euro 2020 finals. The shots of the captain laughing and joking behind a Wales flag with the words, “WALES. GOLF. MADRID…IN THAT ORDER” sparked calls in the Spanish media for the player to be moved on, but ahead of the club’s clash against Barcelona, Zidane said: “That’s in the past.

Tom King is worried he may have found his way onto the Madridistas’ hit list after standing next to Gareth Bale in Wales’ post-match celebrations after qualifying for the Euros this week. Bale’s team-mates huddled around the Real Madrid star after the game and draped a Welsh flag that carried the controversial slogan ‘Wales. Golf. Madrid.’ in front of him. That celebration created a storm back in the Spanish capital as tensions between the one-time world’s most expensive player and his club plummeted to an all-time low. Standing next to the four times Champions League winner was League Two goalkeeper, King.

Wales and Hungary meet tonight in a winner-takes-all clash for Euro 2020 qualification in Cardiff. Hungary won the Budapest reverse fixture 1-0 in June but Wales have gone five games unbeaten since that defeat. These are five of the talking points. Handling the pressure Reaching the semi-finals of Euro 2016 and the emergence of another talented generation has raised the expectations of Wales football fans. But Wales were suffocated by the Republic of Ireland when a 2018 World Cup play-off place was on the line. Wales lost 1-0 and Chris Coleman’s reign was all but over. This time the pressure is on Ryan Giggs to get it right – and a sell-out Cardiff City Stadium expects nothing other than victory. How Wales cope with the pressure will determine whether they qualify for a second-successive European Championship.

Gareth Bale believes Wales reaching the European Championship next summer could trump the achievement of playing at Euro 2016. Wales ended a 58-year wait to play at a major tournament in 2016 and eventually reached the semi-finals in France under Chris Coleman. Over three years on and Ryan Giggs’ young side will qualify for Euro 2020 by beating Hungary at home on Tuesday.