Bale to answer Wales call after missing ‘Clasico’

More than two years have passed since a grinning Gareth Bale, celebrating a big win for his national team, held up a Welsh flag with the words “Wales. Golf. Madrid. In That Order” written on it.

At least with regard to his footballing priorities, it appears little has changed.

A day after missing one of the world’s biggest club matches – the Clasico match between Barcelona and Real Madrid in the Spanish league – Bale joined up with the Wales squad on Monday ahead of a World Cup qualifying playoff against Austria. Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti had said of Bale’s absence at the Santiago Bernabéu, “he wasn’t up to playing.”

Nothing, it seems, motivates Bale – at one time the most expensive player in history – more than playing for his country. Especially with Wales’ first appearance at a World Cup in 64 years on the line.

Bale linked up with his Wales teammates having only played around 80 minutes of club football since featuring against Real Betis on August 28. Indeed, since that game, Bale has made twice as many appearances for Wales (four) than he has for Madrid. His most recent outing for the Spanish giants was as a late substitute in a Champions League match at Paris Saint-Germain on February 18.

He didn’t make Madrid’s 23-man squad for the 4-0 loss to Barcelona on Sunday, reportedly because of back pain.

“He didn’t feel well yesterday after training. He tried this morning but he wasn’t up to playing,” Ancelotti said after the game. “He’s now going to join up with his national team and they’ll decide whether he plays or not.”

While Bale may lack the motivation to play for Madrid in what is his ninth – and likely last – season at the Spanish club, he is always ready to go to great lengths to play for Wales.

He now has 100 international caps after playing a World Cup qualifier in November against Belarus, the same country against whom he scored a hat trick in September. On 36 goals, he is Wales’ record scorer and the player the team looks to for inspiration.

He will be far from 100 percent fit for the Austria game, but that is unlikely to stop Wales coach Robert Page from starting Bale in search of a victory that would advance the team to a match against either Ukraine or Scotland in June, for the right to play at the tournament in Qatar over November and December.

Bale joined Madrid from Tottenham in 2013 for a world-record fee of 100 million euros and won a raft of trophies – including the Champions League four times. Injuries and a breakdown in his relationship with former coach Zinedine Zidane led to him becoming a peripheral figure at the club, however, and the winger joined Tottenham on a season-long loan for the 2020-21 campaign.

Bale seemed to enjoy his football more back in the Premier League and on returning to Madrid for this season he has only fallen back into the shadows. (AP)