Gareth Bale’s agent has played down the on-loan Tottenham winger’s claim that he is returning to Real Madrid this summer and says it is ‘too early’ to know where he will be playing next season.
The 31-year-old – who has started to re-find his form since the turn of the year – revealed this week that he does not expect to stay in north London beyond his loan and could try to revive his Madrid career.
‘The original plan was to do a season at Spurs and after the Euros still have a year left at Real Madrid,’ explained Bale.
‘My plan is to back and that’s as far as I’ve planned, to be honest.’
Although those comments suggested Bale was looking to win back Zinedine Zidane’s favour, his agent, Jonathan Barnett, has now told ESPN that his remarks were ‘taken completely out of context’.
With Bale’s contract with Madrid set to expire in 2022, Barnett says it is ‘too early’ to draw any conclusions over where he will be playing his football next season.
Barnett repeated that stance in another interview with BBC Sport Wales, saying: ‘There’s no timescale [on talks about his future]. He is just concentrating on now.’
Spurs are believed to have the option to take Bale on loan next season too, though he has struggled to convince manager Jose Mourinho that he deserves a place in the starting XI.
Although Bale has re-found some form more recently, he has netted just five times in 12 Premier League appearances this season and largely failed to justify the enormous salary he is on.
The Welsh winger fell out with Zidane at Madrid and, if Spurs do not take up their option of a second loan season, the Spanish giants are likely to try and offload a player who broke the transfer record when he moved to the Bernabeu.
Bale has won four Champion League titles and two La Liga titles during his time with Real and has the chance to lift the Carabao Cup with Spurs next month.
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