Language is a Real barrier for Bale
GARETH BALE is becoming increasingly isolated in the Real Madrid dressing room because of his failure to gain a complete command of the Spanish language. Nearly two years after the forward’s record-breaking £85million move to Real Madrid, the forward is still getting to grips with the language. Although Cristiano Ronaldo is one of a number of players who also speak English — along with head coach Carlo Ancelotti — the dressing room prefers to communicate in Spanish. Bale has continued to take lessons, but his failure to make significant progress is one of the reasons behind the frustration in the dressing room with the forward. The Welshman’s last major interview was with a Spanish radio station, but the entire 40-minute dialogue had to be conducted in English and translated into Spanish for the audience. But Bale is determined to make his move to La Liga a success. At his presentation to fans in the Bernabeu in September 2013 he addressed them in Spanish, but he has yet to find the confidence to speak in the local language. After heavy criticism of his performance in the first leg of the Champions League semi-final against Juventus last week, Bale’s agent Jonathan Barnett went into bat for his star client. He made the extraordinary claim that his team-mates are not passing the ball to Bale often enough. Barnett said: ‘We’ve been vindicated by these statistics and it’s what we’ve been saying all along. ‘It proves that people don’t know what they’re talking about when they criticise Gareth. ‘Real have to work with Gareth and pass the ball to him more. Give him more of the ball and let him show everybody what he’s good at. He’s going to be the best player at Real Madrid when his team-mates work with him and help him. ‘Hopefully Real will come to terms with this. I’m very upset that professional pundits don’t realise these facts. They should look at it more closely because it’s plain to see when you watch the games.’