• Last year he celebrated Wales’ qualifying for Euro 2020 by posing in front of a banner reading ‘Wales. Golf. Madrid. In that Order’, causing a vicious backlash and leading to Real fans booing and whistling him in his first game back for the club.
Image: / REUTERS
Real Madrid forward Gareth Bale says he is still confused that his love for playing golf has caused such a stir in Spain and questioned why other elite sportsmen are not criticised for playing the game.
Despite winning four Champions League titles with Real and scoring crucial goals in three finals, Bale still divides opinion in Spain due to a perceived lack of commitment as well as a poor injury record, which the Spanish media have often blamed on his passion for playing golf in his spare time.
Last year he celebrated Wales’ qualifying for Euro 2020 by posing in front of a banner reading ‘Wales. Golf. Madrid. In that Order’, causing a vicious backlash and leading to Real fans booing and whistling him in his first game back for the club.
“A lot of people have problems with me playing golf,” Bale told U.S golf podcast The Eric Anders Lang Show. “I don’t know what their reason is because I’ve spoken to doctors and everybody’s fine with it. The media has this perception that it’s not good for me, you should be resting, it can cause you injuries.
“(U.S. basketball player) Steph Curry plays maybe on the morning of a game. If I play two days before a game, it’s like ‘what’s he doing?’”
Bale, who has built a golf course in his back garden in Wales, added that he plays on a handicap between three and four and plays golf at least twice a day when the football season is over.
Meanwhile, Espanyol and Leganes fans holding current season tickets will be handed free passes for the entire 2020-2021 campaign to compensate for missing matches due to the shutdown caused by the coronavirus pandemic, the two La Liga clubs said on Tuesday.
The Spanish top-flight is set to resume in June after being provisionally suspended in March with 11 rounds of matches remaining but, as in Germany’s Bundesliga, fans cannot attend the games in order to prevent further spread of the virus.
It is unclear when fans will be able to return to stadiums, with medical experts saying mass gatherings should be avoided until there is a vaccine, which is unlikely to be available until 2021.
With the two teams struggling at the bottom of the standings, it is possible that one or both sides could be playing in the second division next season.
“Leganes will automatically renew all its season ticket holders for the next season,” said a statement from the club, based in the satellite city of the same name just outside Madrid. “Taking into account the implications that COVID-19 has brought to the country and specially the city of Leganes, the club wants to compensate its fans and season ticket holders.”
Barcelona side Espanyol said that in addition to offering its 27,833 season ticket holders free 2020-2021 passes, they would also reimburse 20% of the value of their current season ticket to account for the matches they will miss.