What to watch in the main competitions

Here is a look at the main talking points in the major European football leagues this weekend:

Bale returns to Real Madrid after mocking club with banner

Gareth Bale has made his priorities clear. Now Real Madrid will get its turn. First comes his home country of Wales. Second is a round of golf.

Third is his job of playing professional football for millions of euros for one of the world's most glamorous and successful clubs.

Bale faces his first potential match for Madrid on Saturday since publicly mocking his club by celebrating Wales' qualification for the 2020 European Championship behind a banner that read "Wales. Golf. Madrid. In That Order."

The banner was a direct response to criticism of him by former Madrid player Predrag Mijatovic, who said on sport talk radio that Bale put Wales and golf before Madrid. But instead of ignoring the comment by the pundit, Bale appeared to embrace it and turn it into a joke.

That has made many in Spain wonder how many more chances Bale will receive to contribute to the third-most important commitment in his life.

Bayern's struggles put Hansi Flick in the spotlight

The turmoil at Bayern Munich has finally led to assistant extraordinaire Hansi Flick being put in charge.

Never mind that Flick hasn't been a full-time head coach in 14 years. So far, things are going well.

Flick is well known to Bayern's players after joining as an assistant to Niko Kovac this year. Before that, he was an assistant to Joachim Löw when Germany won the 2014 World Cup.

Under Flick, Bayern beat Olympiakos 2-0 in the Champions League and followed up with a convincing 4-0 victory over Bundesliga rival Borussia Dortmund. Next up on Saturday is Fortuna Düsseldorf, which caused Bayern problems last season and has a solid home record.

Flick is focusing on how Bayern plays without the ball, right back Joshua Kimmich said.

"The basis is keeping a shutout," Kimmich said. "That's what we've done so far."

That defensive focus will be tested against Fortuna. No visiting team has left Düsseldorf with a clean sheet since Frankfurt did it in March.

Bayern's players have praised the return to form under Flick, who won four German titles with the club as a player in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Fit, fresh and firing, Vardy a striker reborn at Leicester

Hours after being hired as Leicester manager, Brendan Rodgers was walking around the locker room at King Power Stadium and introducing himself to his new players when he reached Jamie Vardy.

"I shook his hand," Rodgers recalled of his first meeting with the squad's most high-profile player, "and said to him, 'I'm glad you're here.'"

Nine months later, Vardy likely will have the same sentiments about his coach.

The late-blooming striker, who started out playing on muddy fields in the non-leagues and became one of English soccer's most clinical goal-scorers, is in his most prolific form since netting in a record 11 straight games from August to November in 2015 during Leicester's improbable run to the Premier League title that season.

Commisso promises to keep Fiorentina ‘forever’

Less than six months into his tenure as Fiorentina owner and president, Rocco Commisso is already starting to grapple with Italy's infamous bureaucracy as he attempts to build a new stadium for the club.

First, Commisso's plan to overhaul the existing Stadio Artemio Franchi was rejected by the city committee that protects cultural monuments.

Now he is awaiting approval to build a new ground, perhaps near the city's airport.

"Too long, too many bureaucracies, too many different wings of the government that have to impose themselves in the decisionmaking process, which is screwing Italy left and right," Commisso said during an interview with The Associated Press