Wales. Golf. Madrid. In that order.
On. And on. And on. The Spanish media coverage.
On Wednesday we covered a round-up of the reaction from Spain to Gareth Bale’s post-match celebrations, after Wales qualified for Euro 2020.
Standing behind a flag which made fun of recent reports and quotes about his love of golf and playing for the national team, the Real Madrid player managed to wind up many in the Spanish sport media.
Maybe we should have waited, because the hysteria has very much continued into Thursday. AS report the mockery has ‘bothered’ those in charge at Madrid, and they want to hear the player’s side of the story.
That sounds relatively reasonable, yet in another column, by well known Real Madrid fanatic Tomas Roncero, all reason goes out the window.
‘I’m going to design a flag for Gareth so that this Saturday I will show it at the Bernabéu before the match between Real Madrid and Real Sociedad, with this message: “Bale out, out, out. In that order”.’
Tomas is 54 years of age.
Roncero added Bale’s dance with the flag has ‘exceeded the limits of the patience of the fans’ and ‘the fine for skipping this red light should be the highest imaginable’.
And just so nobody is in any doubt what he thinks, the journalist continues: ‘If it were down to me, Bale would not play another minute with the Real Madrid shirt. For this crest he has not played and his grace can take him to a Welsh television humour show, because here it won’t be accepted. I had never seen the staff so irritated and hurt with a performance by a Madrid player. Use a celebration, logical and healthy to be for his country, to mock the club that generously pays you is beyond the limits of decency. I don’t know what Zidane will do with him, but if I were in his place, I’m he would spend the months until June sitting on the bench. Gareth out!’
Despite all of this, it would appear some in the Spanish media are rather more upset than Real Madrid fans, who have seen repeat campaigns against their players over the years, often seemingly encouraged by the club.
These columns aren’t going down universally well with a Spanish audience, and despite how angry Roncero insists those in charge at Real Madrid are, the club are sending out messages of calm to Marca and others.
Perhaps the media are hurt because it was they who started the golf narrative, all the way back in 2017, and who have encouraged it ever since… short of much else to use as a tool to attack Bale.
That flag, and the proud Welsh hero standing behind it, was more a two fingers up to his detractors than to the club itself, and they’ve responded with tantrums that Bale himself hasn’t resorted to despite taking their rubbish for years.
They don’t like it back at them, clearly.
On Wednesday, Sport Witness asked Gareth Bale’s agent Jonathan Barnett for his view on the whole golf narrative, and he told us: “The whole media campaign is a disgrace and a lot of it is complete lies. Some of the so called media should be very ashamed of themselves.”
