“I shouldn’t have played without having totally recovered”

Bale isn’t going through his best spell in Spain, but neither does this make him the worst footballer. He was once upon a time idolised at Real Madrid for his ability to get past a defender, and his excellent aerial play, but now it seems like his qualities have lost the confidence of everyone at the Bernabeu.

Passing through a rough patch in his career, Real Madrid’s most expensive player of all time has opened up to fans in a frank interview with ‘El Pais’, speaking about his journey and his sporting ambitions.

“When you’re young, you don’t think about winning this or that, all you think about is becoming professional”, the Welshman begins, who admits that one of his biggest goals is staying fit and injury-free.

“When you’ve been out for three months and you’re watching your team-mates play, you really want to come back and thats what I did,” he explains, referring to the matches he played last season without having fully recovered. “If I could go back, I would’ve taken more time to recover better”, Bale clarifies.

The British footballer reckons his best years are ahead of him. “It’s true that there have been great moments, and others less so, but I’m hoping that the best is yet to come”, he says, acknowledging also that he’s suffered in Spain from being distant from his family, and from the constant trips a professional footballer is faced with.

Bale denies having a specific aim in life, and recalls that he chose the Spanish game in order to improve as a footballer. “British football is much quicker, and much more physical. In Spain, it’s much more technical and tactical, and I came to improve as a player”, he reflects, before acknowledging that his biggest weakness is being “quite lazy”.