Bale on the Ball With Debut Goal

Bale on the Ball With Debut Goal                Media Interest in Real Madrid New Boy Centers on Relationship With Ronaldo

By Gabriele Marcotti

Real Madrid's Gareth Bale, center, tests Villareal's Jaume Costa during Saturday's La Liga match at the Madrigal stadium. Bale scored in his first game for the club.

 Alberto Saiz/Associated Press

It came 38 minutes into the first half, with Real Madrid surprisingly a goal down against newly promoted Villarreal. Madrid right back Daniel Carvajal galloped down the flank, crossed the ball hard and low to the far post and Gareth Bale slid in ahead of the defender to slot it home.

Bale got up, grinned broadly and immediately embraced Cristiano Ronaldo as cameras around the stadium captured the moment. Saturday’s match would finish 2-2 (not a great result for Madrid) and Bale would get applause for a debut goal, but perhaps the enduring memory was the celebration between the club’s two priciest superstars. Rarely have two players—probably unwillingly—been so intertwined in the global media narrative.

It starts with the fee that Real Madrid paid to sign Bale from England’s Tottenham Hotspur following a pursuit which, according to Bale’s agent Jonathan Barnett, lasted a staggering 110 days from “first contact” back in May to completion, on Sept. 1.

There are no publicly available “official” transfer fees in soccer. So it’s up to the clubs and the agents involved to disclose the amounts, on the record or on background. According to the English media, which cited people close to Tottenham, Madrid paid a nice, round €100 million ($132 million). But reports in Spain, relying on word from Real, say the fee was actually €91 million or around $120 million.

What’s in that $12 million disparity?

Everything, apparently. In 2009, Real Madrid signed Ronaldo from Manchester United for €94 million and, given that he is the club’s star player, it was important to ensure he remained the most expensive transfer of all time, so as not to bruise his ego. At least, that’s the popular narrative peddled by the media. Neither Ronaldo, nor Real Madrid will offer comment on the record on the subject.

(The irony here is that, based on the exchange rate at the time, even if Bale did cost €100m, Ronaldo would still be more expensive in dollar terms, clocking in at $134 million.)

It seems silly to believe that Ronaldo, one of the top two players in the world alongside Barcelona’s Lionel Messi over the past few seasons, would be bothered by something like a teammate’s transfer fee. (A wage disparity you could understand, but transfer fees, especially four years apart, really don’t mean much.)

And yet Ronaldo is so often depicted as some kind of diva, insecure about his status in the game, particularly with respect to Messi and the age-old debate over who can claim to be the best player in the world. The notion took on a life of its own, simply because it was the sort of story that seemed plausible and which Ronaldo himself couldn’t credibly deny. It was a classic case of any statement on the matter being taken as protesting too much, likely leaving it to boomerang back and hurt him.

In the buildup to Bale’s first match, the media continued to focus on the relationship between the two and, at an open training session on Thursday, Christmas came early for the mischief-makers. During a standard keep-away drill, Ronaldo slid in to tackle Bale, forcing the latter to jump out of the way. Moments later, Bale nutmegged Ronaldo, flicking the ball between the Portuguese forward’s legs and blowing past him. It’s a perfectly legal move and technically difficult at that. But in the code of the training ground, it can also be seen as showboating in an attempt to humiliate an opponent.

These two incidents, naturally, gave the assembled media plenty of fodder for speculation about the budding relationship between these two. After the nutmeg Ronaldo held up his hand, thumb and index finger extended, an inch or so apart.

What did it mean?

Was Ronaldo saying “Nice one, Gareth, I was this close to getting the ball”?

Or was he saying “Do it again and I’ll beat you up. You’re this close to getting your butt kicked”?

Nobody, except for Ronaldo and those in the immediate vicinity, knows for sure. And yet that didn’t stop the media from interpreting the incident in so many different ways.

That’s why it was important for Bale’s debut to go smoothly and for him to celebrate, first and foremost, with his illustrious teammate. Just to put to bed any suggestion that the hierarchy at Real Madrid might be upset.

And if there were any lingering doubts about who the top dog is, they were quashed on Sunday, when Real Madrid President Florentino Perez, calling it a “great day for the club” announced that Ronaldo had signed a contract extension through 2018.

As is customary, no official numbers were released, but the widely reported figures suggest Ronaldo will get a raise of more than 50% bringing him up to $22.6 million a year after taxes, or a staggering $48 million pretax.

That’s enough to comfortably make him the highest paid player in the world, ahead of Messi and Paris Saint-Germain’s Zlatan Ibrahimovic. It’s also roughly 2.5 times as much as Bale earns.

Just as importantly, from Madrid’s perspective, it exorcises the specter of Ronaldo letting his contract run down toward free agency (his previous deal expired in June 2015) and either forcing a move elsewhere for less than fair-market value or leaving for nothing at the end of next season.

Those who thought (or hoped) that Ronaldo’s presumed diva personality would result in a tantrum with the arrival of a usurper like Bale were disappointed. And the fact that he is now committed to staying on board through 2018 means that the club has one fewer headache