Wales captain Bale in talks with Team V "Championship" On joining its ranks

Wales captain Gareth Bale said on Wednesday that he had held talks with Cardiff City about a possible move to the club after his contract with Real Madrid expired.

Bale has been closely associated with a free transfer to his hometown club, which compete in the second tier Championship league in England, following the end of his tumultuous nine-year spell in Madrid.

And it has been reported that the 32-year-old striker, who was once the most expensive player in the world, is mulling over the pros and cons of a move to Cardiff City ahead of playing with Wales at the World Cup in Qatar in November.

His representatives confirmed to BBC Sport Wales that they were in talks with Cardiff President Mohamed Dalman.

Bale, who won the Champions League five times with the Royal Club, has many options on the table with teams in the NBA and his former clubs Tottenham and Newcastle who have expressed interest in his services.

But the Welsh star sparked speculation that he might prefer Cardiff by saying the level of football he plays ahead of the World Cup won’t be a determining factor.

“I really don’t know if level matters,” he said in a statement during last week’s international window. “A football match is still a football game.”

“I need time to think about the best move for me, my family and my kids and I hope we can sort this out this summer. I have options.”

Bale, who has family in Cardiff, was earning around £600,000 ($736,000) a week at Real Madrid and would have had to sacrifice a large sum of money to sign for Steve Morrison’s side.

But his agent, Jonathan Barnett, said in a recent interview that “what Gareth is going to do next is not about money.”

Bale was seen at Cardiff’s training ground on Wednesday, prompting some fans to say he is in the process of completing his move to Cardiff City. But the capital club shares its premises with the Welsh Football Association’s medical department, so Bale’s presence was linked to physical fitness.

Source: AFP

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