Bale advises Bellingham to speak Spanish? I advise him to play less golf and more football, a Spanish journalist quipped

Gareth Bale had a tough time in Spain. Since he refused to talk to the media and didn’t speak Spanish in public, he was criticized a lot. But when he advised Jude Bellingham not to repeat the same mistake, the Spanish journalist took another dig at him.

Bale had advice for Bellingham

Footballing-wise, at least in his first few years at Real Madrid, Gareth Bale had nothing to complain about. But when he stopped doing well, he became a prime target for the media.

The latter constantly criticised him for not learning Spanish even after six years in Madrid, or even for completely ignoring the media and not communicating with them. It was even worse when Bale’s love of golf came to light, which he began to prefer over football, or when he put a blindfold over his eyes during a match in the stands to avoid having to watch the game.

Bale was enemy number one for the media and they often gave him a hard time. So when another British superstar arrived in the Spanish capital this summer with no knowledge of the language, the Welsh footballer had some valuable advice for him.

“My biggest piece of advice is to play the game Madrid want. Because if you don’t play it and you don’t do what the media want, you’re basically just a puppet, you’re going to get a lot of shots. You’ve seen a lot of ‘Galácticos’ behaving like that, doing what the media wanted,” Bale told Sky Sports.

More football, less golf

“That was probably my problem because I didn’t want to do that. I just wanted to play football and go home. That made things a bit more difficult and caused the media to attack me a bit more. So you have to talk to them after games and especially speak Spanish,” the four-time Champions League winner advises Bellingham.

However, Josep Pedrerol of TV sports show El Chirinquito responded. “Bale advises Bellingham to talk to the media and learn Spanish? I advise him to play more football and less golf,” quipped one of Spain’s most famous media figures.

Golf was also involved in one of the blackest moments in Bala’s career. After Wales qualified for the EURO, the footballer celebrated with a flag that read “Wales. Golf. Madrid. In Spain, he was hugely criticised for this.

Source: El Chirinquito