“My plan is to go back, that’s as far I have planned.”
Welsh international Gareth Bale has reaffirmed his intention to return to Real Madrid when the season ends.
Joining Tottenham on loan at the start of the campaign, seven years after leaving for Spain, the future of the 31-year-old has been the constant subject of speculation since returning to Spurs. With his contract in Madrid set to run until the end of next season, Bale’s future had seemed pretty hazy with his loan deal at Spurs expiring in summer.
Speaking ahead of his country’s World Cup qualifier with Belgium, Bale set aside the speculation over his future calmly:
“There’s no distraction for me. I think the main reason I came to Spurs this year was to play football first and foremost.
“Going into the Euros I wanted to be match-fit. The original plan was to do a season at Spurs and after the Euros still have a year left at Real Madrid.
“My plan is to go back, that’s as far I have planned.”
The Welshman has served up several below par performances earlier in the season but his form has picked up impressively lately with the Welshman contributing with six goals in his last nine appearances for Spurs. Unfortunately it was beyond him to prevent Dinamo Zagreb bringing their European Tour to a premature end in Croatia last week.
With still quite a fair bit of ground still to cover in the current campaign, he will at least hope to help carry his club to their first major title win since 2007, when they face Manchester City in the Carabao Cup final.
If what he says is on the level, Bale will be hoping to follow through on his intention to return to Madrid, but this all depends on Zinedine Zidane as the Los Blancos manager had already recently expressed his total lack of interest to retain the Welshman.