Real Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane revealed that Gareth Bell chose not to travel with his team to face Manchester City in the UEFA Champions League because he did not want to play, in the latest episode of the dispute between the club and the Welsh player.
Bill was rarely involved during the career of Zidane towards the La Liga title when he resumed the season after stopping due to Covid-19, he played in one game and appeared in a bad mood during the team's celebrations to win the League title.
He was excluded from the Real Madrid squad in his last game of the season against Leganes, as he missed the list facing City in the second leg of the Champions League final price tomorrow Friday, where the Spanish team must compensate for its 2-1 delay in order to qualify for the quarter-finals.
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Zidane said in a press conference today, Thursday, "There were many rumors. There is a relationship of respect between the club and the player, but I will say that he preferred not to play, the rest between us and him," adding that Bill missed the squad for personal rather than technical reasons.
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A source close to the player said that Bell did not want to travel for the match because he believed he would not have participated in it.
Bell, 31, won 4 Champions League titles with Real Madrid and scored decisive goals in the final match in 2014 and 2018 against Atletico Madrid and Liverpool, respectively.
But his career full of titles with Real Madrid is on the way to a miserable end, with the widening gap between the Welsh striker and Zidane.
Zidane, who returned to Real Madrid in 2019 after his resignation 10 months ago, did not try to hide his half-hearted relationship with the Welsh player, and he said before the start of the season last year that he hoped Bell would leave as soon as possible.
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Spanish media reports said Bell was on the verge of joining Chinese Jiangsu Sunning in July 2019, but Real Madrid stalled the deal at the last hour because he was not going to get a transfer fee.