Gareth Bale can be grateful to keeper Kepa Arrizabalaga. The Keeper of Chelsea refused last weekend, his replacement and was thus the topic of conversation in international football. The escapade that Bale did at Real Madrid in Spain probably went down too.

The four-time Champions League winner Bale snubbed his coach when he broke off the warm-up on his own - insulted because he was not the first player to come on. His displeasure later he also made clear to his teammate Lucas Vázquez when he wanted to congratulate him.

Bale was still in the game and had turned the penalty for a 2-1 victory at UD Levante. Annoyed, he tore himself away from Vázquez, a little later he slapped off with him and the other teammates.

Despite this, Real still has a debate about team spirit and coaching authority in the most important week of the season. In the evening, FC Barcelona come to the semi-final second leg in the cup (first leg: 1: 1). On Saturday, the next Clásico, which is the last chance in the championship, follows (nine points behind Barcelona). And on Tuesday, Ajax Amsterdam will be playing for the knockout round of the Champions League. Given the tight 2: 1 in the first leg and the yellow card suspension of captain Sergio Ramos there is still nothing decided.

The coach, Santiago Solari, was cross-examined by the press on Tuesday. Whether a Welshman nomination would be defensible in the face of weekend events, whether professionals like the looted Isco would not have to complain about double standards, if other substitutes would not be demoralized - so three of the many questions about Bale, the Solari, it just somehow went, with trivialities trying to defuse: "Bale is fully involved."

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Gareth Bale (left) pushes Lucas Vázquez away

Solari has made tough decisions in his four months as Real Madrid coach:

  • condemned the national team director Isco to insignificance because of a lack of discipline,
  • downgraded Asensio, who was also once courted, to a supplementary player,
  • For years, brilliant vice-captain and left-back Marcelo has been ranked behind the 22-year-old no-name Sergio Reguilón for his defensive weaknesses.

But Bale is another caliber. Bale is regarded as the favorite of President Florentino Pérez since he bought in 2013 for the former record of 101 million euros from Tottenham, because the club boss was convinced to have found in him a younger, better, easier-care Ronaldo.

Bale is displaced by Vinícius and Vázquez

Ronaldo then defended his claim to leadership easily through superior scoring. Bale contributed important hits, but never became a mainstay due to injuries and lack of integration. When Ronaldo left, everything was about to change, Bale should finally find his place. But it only got worse, a teenager (Vinícius) and a previous supplemental player (Vázquez) often supplanted the 29-year-old from the regular team, and now Bale seems so annoyed that he is looking for the trouble downright.

Already in October he amazed in the middle of Real's first major seasonal crisis, when he wanted to be replaced several times, although the doctors could not find any blush. During a defeat against Real Sociedad in January - Bale was missing injured - he left the stadium ten minutes before the whistle at the score of 0: 1. And in the derby at Atlético he recently celebrated his goal - as a substitute - to 3: 1 with obscene gestures towards the audience.

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The airs are all the worse off when he still does not speak Spanish and his inaccessible way to Madrid fits like a carp in the South Seas. In the media, the real-top earners (15 million euros net) of these days are covered with malice. No petitess is too small for that, not even that he watched a golf tournament when he entered Levante's stadium on his cell phone.

Former coaches Zidane and Ancelotti had problems with Bale

Golf is Bale's great passion, he has his own three-hole course in his Welsh residence. In the cabin they call him the "golfer", keeper Thibaut Courtois recently chatted. The Belgian, who has arrived from Chelsea, also blasphemed that Bale had skipped a joint team dinner because it was too late for him: "He said, I have to sleep at eleven." Courtois, once at Atlético, probably knew exactly how to expose Bale as an ignoramus. Going to bed before midnight - this is considered a capital crime in Spain.

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Real Madrid's Gareth Bale

More fundamentally, critics accuse him of having the two most popular Real coaches of the last decade on their conscience. In retrospect, Carlo Ancelotti has repeatedly explained how his insistence on coach autonomy in dealing with Bale shattered his relationship with Pérez. Zinédine Zidane is said to have had the president almost to the point of agreeing to the sale of a professional he considered too selfish and unreliable. But Bale's great backflip as a substitute in the last Champions League final against Liverpool brought Pérez close to his old love again - he persuaded Bale to stay. Shortly afterwards, Zidane resigned.

Now, the Bale Personality also crosses Solaris Way. Does Solari lose his authority or lose the president? Or did Pérez turn away after Bale's escapades? What had never quite matched, may be before the big bang.