Gareth Bale would like to stay at Real Madrid but is in no rush to sign a new deal with the Bernabeu club as negotiations continue, according to the Mirror.
The Welshman is one of the club’s priorities as they look to tie down the core of their Champions League-winning side for the foreseeable future.
Luka Modric and Toni Kroos have recently renewed their contracts, committing their future to the club until 2020 and 2022 respectively while Cristiano Ronaldo is currently in talks over an extension too.
31-year-old Ronaldo’s talks have hit a slight buffer as the two sides quibble over the duration of such a blockbuster deal, with the Portuguese asking for a five-year renewal.
Bale’s talks are less advanced than those of his fellow forward, and while there is little doubt that the 27-year-old winger will stay in the Spanish capital having finally adapted to life on the Iberian Peninsula, plenty of details are still to be decided.
His net wage is expected by those close to negotiations to nearly double, netting him over £250k per week AFTER tax and surpassing Sergio Ramos as the club’s second-highest earner. The release clause, a compulsory inclusion in the contract of every Spanish player, is expected to be half a billion euros.
Madrid are delighted with the progress that Cardiff-born Bale has made in the last 18 months and believe he could challenge the likes of Neymar and Antoine Griezmann for the Ballon d’Or once Ronaldo and Lionel Messi’s hegemony ends.
Indeed, Bale has a clause in his contract that would reward him should he ever be crowned the world’s best player.
Far more importantly, however, he was a key player for Zinedine Zidane in the business end of last season and almost single-handedly kept them in the title race with matchwinning performances against Rayo Vallecano and Real Sociedad.
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