London (AFP)

Back to the Tottenham box: After seven years of an upset history with Real Madrid, striker Gareth Bale was loaned out for a year at his former club, Spurs announced on Saturday.

During his Madrid years, the 31-year-old Welshman won the Champions League four times and La Liga twice, but he no longer seemed to fit into Zinedine Zidane's plans.

Bale had played just 48 minutes of the 12 games played by Los Blancos at the end of last season and his relationship with management was notoriously poor.

Real was also content with a minimalist two-sentence statement about him.

"Our club wishes good luck to a player who was part of one of our most prosperous times," he writes of the one who has nevertheless scored 105 goals in 251 matches and won 13 trophies in 7 years.

According to the British press, to facilitate the transaction, the Merengue have agreed to cover most of his salary estimated at 600,000 pounds per week (652,000 euros).

Recently, Bale had however accused the club of having hampered his plans to leave, especially to China in 2019.

- Casual attitude -

His attitude had not always been appreciated at Real.

He had posed with the Welsh team holding a national flag on which was written "Wales. Golf. Madrid. In that order", suggesting that his club even passed after his passion for the greens.

He had also been filmed with his anti-Covid mask raised over his eyes to pretend to sleep on the substitutes' bench, during a championship match where he understood that he would not enter the field.

With this loan, the Welsh player will return to the club with which he shone from 2007 to 2013 to the point of becoming the most expensive transfer in history when he joined Real for some EUR 101 million.

He had made 203 appearances for Spurs, scoring 55 goals and winning the player of the season title twice in 2011 and 2013.

"It's such a special club for me. It's amazing to be back (...) I always thought when I left that I would come back one day and the opportunity presented itself. I'm hungry, I'm motivated and I want to give my best for the team, "the player wrote in a Twitter message.

Tottenham say, however, that the player was hit in the knee during the Nations League meetings in early September with Wales and that he was physically behind the rest of the squad anyway due to the later restart. of La Liga.

"We currently estimate that he will be ready to play in a match after the international break in October," said the London club, which also announced the arrival for 5 years of the Spanish side Sergio Reguilon, also from Madrid.

The transfer fee for the 23-year-old, who won the Europa League with Sevilla, where he was on loan last year, is said to be £ 32m including bonus (EUR 35m) .

The press had also indicated that Madrid wanted to include a cause for the player's priority buyout in the next two years in the contract, which had led Manchester United, also interested in the player, not to follow up.

© 2020 AFP