Ramon Calderon offers Gareth Bale transfer opinion

Former Real Madrid president Ramon Calderon has offered his view of the ongoing saga involving Gareth Bale’s future at the Bernabeu.

Bale was a subject of a lucrative £1 million-a-week contract offer from the Chinese Super League outfit Jiangsu Suning.

Just when it seemed everything was in place for the Welshman to end his Real Madrid misery, Zinedine Zidane shut down the transfer.

The Frenchman’s decision to retain the 31-year-old forward has turned out to be an epic mistake. Bale barely featured for Los Blancos last term and had an even smaller impact.

The once world’s most expensive player lamented a disappointing tally of two goals and two assists registered in 16 La Liga outings last season.

After seeing Bale’s influence on the team dwindled due to the emergence of the Brazilian duo Vinicius Junior and Rodrygo, Real Madrid are looking to take his exorbitant salary off the books.

Despite turning down the chance to offload him for €100 million last summer, reigning Spanish champions are now ready to get rid of Bale’s services for free. At least, that’s what Ramon Calderon thinks.

“I know in the last day of the transfer window last year there was an offer from the Premier League,” Calderon told talkSPORT.

“They offered €100m, and Real Madrid turned down that offer because they thought Bale would be a player in their side.

“He came in 2013 with a contract for six years, and the strange thing is in 2016 – with Zidane at the helm – the club extended his contract until 2022.

“I don’t know why, but at the end of 2018 when he played well in the Champions League final [against Liverpool], Zidane told the president to keep Cristiano Ronaldo and sell Bale.

“The president did the opposite, and Zidane left, and from that moment there has been a disagreement between Zidane and the player.

“And in some way, I think fans are angry and annoyed because they’ve seen Bale not interested in some matches, and now they have to find a solution.

“I think Real Madrid would now be willing to let him go without any transfer fee – that would be the solution – but in that case, I don’t see any club paying €40m-a-year for a player who is 31 and who hasn’t been playing regularly in the last two years.”