Former Real Madrid Star Gareth Bale Breaks Silence On Controversial Flag Incident
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At the end of the 2013 summer transfer window, Gareth Bale joined Real Madrid for a then world record fee from Tottenham Hotspur, to complete a front three with Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema.
It proved to be a very successful period. In the Welshman's first season at Real Madrid, the club won the UEFA Champions League for the first time in 12 years, the 10th in Los Blancos' history - known as La Decima.
In that final, Bale scored the all-important second goal to put Carlo Ancelotti's side ahead in extra time, in an eventual 4-1 victory. He would also score twice in the 2018 final against Liverpool, including one of the all-time great Champions League goals with an overhead kick to make it 2-1 at the time.
During his time in the Spanish capital, Bale's other most iconic moment was in the 2014 Copa Del Rey final against Barcelona. With the score 1-1 after 85 minutes, the winger knocked the ball past Marc Bartra down the outside, before running off the pitch and back on it to get the ball ahead of the defender, before carrying the ball into the box and finishing into the near post for the winning goal.
However, despite all of the collective and individual success, Bale split opinion perhaps more than any other player in the club's modern history. He was a player who seemed to be either loved or loathed by everyone.
As someone who never publicly spoke Spanish, there was a lack of connection with the fanbase. Although many have argued he would speak and/or understand Spanish in the dressing room, he understandably never felt comfortable speaking it in public.
But mostly, there was a conception that Bale did not care about Real Madrid. At least not more than he loved Wales, nor golf. The former is something that could be accepted. The latter, not so much.
Gareth Bale Addresses The Flag Incident
This was quite a topic back in the day, the peak of which was reached in November 2019. After a 2-0 qualifying win at home to Hungary secured Wales' second ever participation at the European Championships, Bale stood in front of a flag that said "Wales, Golf, Madrid, in that order".
As you can imagine, this went down like a lead balloon, with the forward being absolutely crucified in the Spanish press. His already damaged relationship with the media and fanbase was broken beyond repair.
Nevertheless, Bale never spoke about this incident to try to clear his name. Well, until now. In an interview with GQ, the now 36-year-old has spoken about that infamous moment: "We just qualified for the Euros, so obviously I'm celebrating, the whole team's there, then someone puts the flag in front of me.
"What am I supposed to do? I'm like, I can't throw my own country's flag on the floor because that is the worst thing I could do. I actually didn't physically ever touch the flag, which was important for me because I was like, it's not me doing this - I'm just celebrating with my friends. Then what happened happened."Gareth Bale
Bale continued:
"I got absolutely slaughtered [by the Spanish media]. I felt a bit hard done by because it all comes down to misinformation [...] you have to laugh or you cry. So I laughed."Gareth Bale
Fair play to him for addressing the situation. Perhaps this could have been done earlier, but maybe he didn't expect there to be such a reaction. And it is clear that he is a nonchalant character who doesn't care about what other people think about him.
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Tom Vinall is a sports writer covering Real Madrid On SI. Previously, he had worked at FanSided as both a contributor and site expert, covering the likes of Spurs and Bayern Munich. He has also previously written for Transfer News Live. Tom was born and lives in Bristol, South West England, and loves to listen to music as well as learning Spanish.
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