Gareth Bale has launched an attack on the “slanderous” and “derogatory” comments made about him in the Spanish press as he warned of the impact of such articles on the mental health of athletes.
Bale, who scored two memorable goals for Wales in Thursday’s World Cup play-off semi-final victory over Austria, had been branded a “parasite” by Spanish newspaper Marca earlier this week.
The criticism follows years of negative articles and comments about the Wales captain by the Spanish media and Bale has now called for these journalists and news outlets to be held to account.
In a statement on social media, Bale described the Marca article as “slanderous, derogatory and speculative journalism” and said “we all know who the real parasite is”.
He wrote: “At a time where people are taking their own lives because of the callousness and relentlessness of the media, I want to know, who is holding these journalists and the news outlets that allow them to write articles like this, accountable?
“Fortunately I have developed a thick skin during my time in the public spotlight, but that doesn’t mean articles like these don’t cause damage and upset personally and professionally to those at the receiving end of these malicious stories.
“I have witnessed the toll the media can take on people’s mental and physical health. The media expect superhuman performances from professional athletes, and will be the first to celebrate with them when they deliver, yet instead of commiserating with them when they show an ounce of human error, they are torn to shreds instead, encouraging anger and disappointment in their fans.”
Bale added: “The everyday pressure on athletes is immense, and it’s as clear as day, how negative media attention could easily send an already stressed athlete, or anybody in the public eye, over the edge.
“I hope that by the time our children are of an age where they are able to ingest news, that journalism ethics and standards will have been enforced more stringently.
“So I want to use my platform to encourage change in the way we publicly talk about, and criticise people, simply for the most part [for] not meeting the often unrealistic expectations that are projected onto them. We all know who the real parasite is!”
Telegraph Sport revealed on Friday that the Marca report had angered the Bale camp to such an extent that they have considered taking legal action, and that they have spoken to their lawyers.
Bale has received a constant barrage of criticism in Spain, including regular sniping over his passion for golf, despite winning four Champions League trophies, two La Liga titles and four Club World Cups.
He will leave Real Madrid at the end of this season, when his contract expires, and his agent said his future in the game will depend on Wales.
The 32-year-old is now one game away from leading his country to their first World Cup finals since 1958, with Wales now set to face either Scotland or Ukraine in a play-off final in June.
It has been another frustrating season for Bale at club level, with the Wales captain only playing two hours of football in six months under Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti. He was unavailable for last weekend’s match against Barcelona, which Madrid lost 4-0.
Jonathan Barnett, Bale’s agent, told Telegraph Sport: “Gareth doesn’t know what will happen in the summer, and everything depends on Wales.
“We haven’t spoken to anybody and it will be a decision he makes at some time in June.
“It’s unbelievable they [Real Madrid] haven’t played him, because he can still do things, as everybody saw on Thursday night.
“If they got him into that team and involved, they would have a great player but we’ll live with it and get on with it.
“He’s the greatest player that has ever played for Wales, and one of the greatest Britain has ever produced.”
Gareth Bale’s stunning free-kick was a masterclass of technique and talent
By Sam Dean
The 20th free-kick goal of Gareth Bale’s career was arguably his finest yet. Not only because of the magnitude of the occasion – a World Cup play-off semi-final, at home against Austria – but also because of the sheer quality of the strike. The power on the shot, the height it reached as it travelled over the wall, the sudden dip as it crashed into the top corner: this was a true masterclass of technique and talent.
It was also a goal that had been years in the making. You would not think it, given the excitement that swept around the Cardiff City Stadium as Bale stood over the ball, but this was his first successful free-kick attempt since the summer of 2016, when he scored against England at the European Championship.
Bale has been fruitlessly plugging away ever since then (whenever he has had the chance to play for Real Madrid, at least) and in the euphoric seconds that followed his strike nestling in Austria’s net, it must have felt to him as if all those hours of work had been leading to this one moment of clarity. “That is the best free-kick I have seen in my life,” said Wales manager Rob Page.
Bale’s dead-ball methods have often prompted comparisons with Cristiano Ronaldo, who was famous in the early part of his career for his wobbling “knuckleball” technique. Indeed, the first thought upon viewing Bale’s effort against Austria was that it was similar to some of Ronaldo’s most memorable free-kicks.
Watch closely, though, and it soon becomes clear that Bale’s way of hitting the ball is considerably different to the method used by Ronaldo, whose free-kick efficiency has dipped alarmingly in recent years. This was no “knuckleball”, which is based on punching through the heart of the ball in the hope that it swerves chaotically through the air. Rather than thumping the ball, Bale brushes it with his foot.
When discussing his technique in 2019, Bale used two sports to explain how it works. One of them, inevitably enough given his passion for it, was golf. The other was less predictable: tennis. For the key to Bale’s free-kick against Austria was not the power, but the dip. And that dip comes from topspin, much like the trajectory created when a tennis player brushes the racket up the ball upon contact.
The challenge, which is evidently beyond the vast majority of top-level footballers, is to create that up-and-down motion without the usual side-spin, or curl. Bale aims to hit the ball “as flat as possible”, in his words, and that means keeping the foot almost unnaturally straight. As he connects, he brings his leg sharply upwards to create the topspin. He describes it, strangely enough, as trying to deliberately “scuff” the ball.
The rest of the body remains rigid and tall, which is where Bale’s penchant for golf comes into play. “Golfers keep their heads so still when they hit the ball,” Bale told the F2 Freestylers YouTube channel. “They do not drop at all. If you drop [when striking a free-kick] you lose your height. Keep your height the same and you will get a better connection.”
The numbers show that this is far from the most efficient way to strike a free-kick. A traditional curling effort (the sort perfected by the likes of David Beckham and James Ward-Prowse) is much more reliable and consistent. But for Bale there is nothing quite so thrilling as connecting with a shot like this, and then watching it whip up and over the opposition’s wall.
When he first broke through as a young player at Southampton, Bale quickly showed himself to be a master of the more commonplace curling technique. His first six free-kick goals for club and country were all scored in this way, bent over the wall and into the corner of the net.
From 2012 onwards, this started to change. For Wales and Tottenham Hotspur, Bale became able to imitate Ronaldo’s “knuckleball” technique to great effect. When he went to Real Madrid, this continued for a few seasons before it evolved into the topspin technique he produced on Thursday night.
Asked in 2016 about the change in his style, Bale had a simple explanation: boredom. “I used to curl them before, when I was younger, but I started a different technique because I found it more exciting,” he said. “I found the curl a bit boring, to be honest. This style of free-kick is more exciting. Yeah, it can go 50 yards over the bar. But then it can look even better when it goes in.”
As the jaws dropped across the Cardiff City Stadium, and Bale wheeled away in unrestrained delight, he could safely say that he had emphatically proven his point.
