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Bale could finish career at Real Madrid, says agent

June 05, 2020 14:05 IST

Real Madrid's Gareth Bale 'not keen to return to the Premier League at the moment'

IMAGE: Real Madrid's Gareth Bale 'not keen to return to the Premier League at the moment'. Photograph: Denis Doyle/Getty Images

Real Madrid forward Gareth Bale does not want to return to the Premier League at the moment and could finish his career at the Spanish club, the Welshman's agent Jonathan Barnett has said.

Despite winning four Champions League titles with Real, Bale divides opinion due to a perceived lack of commitment and a poor injury record. He seemed set for a move to Chinese club Jiangsu Suning last year before the deal fell through.

"He has a very nice lifestyle. I don't see why he doesn't see his career out at Madrid probably," Barnett told the BBC.

 

"... To come back and play (in the Premier League) would be unbelievable -- a big thing. I don't think he wants to do that at the moment. He's quite happy to play at Real."

Real host Eibar on June 14 when La Liga resumes after a three-month pause due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Madrid 'raring' to resume and win La Liga: Brahim Diaz

Real Madrid's Brahim Diaz said that the club is 'raring' to resume La Liga and win the title.

"(Manager Zinedine) Zidane has asked us to keep on working as we are, that we enjoy ourselves and to keep progressing. We're raring for La Liga to resume to go and win it," the club's official website quoted Diaz as saying.

La Liga on Monday announced the dates for the remaining matchdays of the 2019-2020 season with the first match set to be played between Sevilla and Real Betis on June 11.

Real Madrid will return to action on June 14 to compete against Eibar while the top-placed club Barcelona will resume the season on June 13 when they will take on Real Mallorca.

On the matches will be played behind closed doors, Diaz said, "The fans mean everything to us and we'll miss them... We'll try to adapt to playing behind closed doors as best we can to go out and win all of the remaining 11 games".

Playing without crowd will be peculiar: Suarez

As La Liga inches closer to return, Barcelona's Luis Suarez has set sights on lifting the title and admitted that playing behind closed doors will be peculiar.

"We are not used to playing in so much heat in the middle of summer. We are adapting to playing without a crowd which will be peculiar," the club's official website quoted Suarez as saying.

"We will continue to focus on winning games to win the league title, which is what we all want," he added.

La Liga on Monday announced the dates for the remaining matchdays of the 2019-2020 season with the first match set to be played between Sevilla and Real Betis on June 11.

Barcelona will resume the season on June 13 when they will take on Real Mallorca while Real Madrid will hit the ground on June 14 to compete against Eibar.

Suarez had undergone a knee injury back in January. Despite admitting it was difficult, Suarez said he is feeling 'very good' to train with his teammates.

"I feel very good, adapting to training with my teammates. Returning after an injury is always difficult because you are a little scared but I'm enjoying being back," he said.

Atletico's Llorente spent lockdown watching repeats of Anfield win

Atletico Madrid's Marcos Llorente was the hero on the night they knocked holders Liverpool out of the Champions League just before the novel coronavirus pandemic disrupted football and he has been watching repeats of the match during lockdown.

Llorente scored for Atletico in the first half of extra time in the last-16 second leg in Merseyside on March 11 and then struck again before Alvaro Morata rounded off a 3-2 win for the visitors to secure a 4-2 aggregate victory.

"We all enjoyed that night a lot. I've watched it a good few times in these last few months," Llorente told Spanish radio station Cadena Ser on Friday.

"At home I've had all the time in the world and every time I see it the hairs on my skin stand up. I've watched the whole match a couple of times and extra time three or four."

The great nephew of Real Madrid's six-times European Cup winner Paco Gento, Llorente had made little impact at Atletico since switching from Real last year and had only scored three goals before his quick-fire double against Liverpool.

A few weeks after knocking out Juergen Klopp's side, Llorente revealed on his Instagram account that he had named his dog Anfield.

The victory over Liverpool was Atletico's last match before the Spanish season was postponed due to the pandemic.

They returned to individual training in early May and progressed to group training later in the month before resuming full training last Monday. Atleti's first game back when the Spanish campaign restarts is at Athletic Bilbao on June 14.

Source: REUTERS
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