Press bash Bale for the ‘same thing’ – Courtois

REAL Madrid star Thibaut Courtois has hit out at the Spanish press and some sections of the Los Blancos support base for repeatedly criticising Gareth Bale “for the same things”.

Fans have often berated the Welshman for not speaking their native tongue since his 2013 switch to the European giants from Tottenham.

His relationship with those in the stands – and manager Zinedine Zidane in the dugout – has often been strained despite him playing key roles in their European and domestic triumphs in recent years.

The “Wales-golf-Madrid” flags that emerged after Wales’ latest round of European qualifiers did not help matters, coming on the back of a summer of speculation over a Chinese Super League transfer.

Bale ended up staying at the Bernabeu but things don’t seem to have improved.

Now former Chelsea stopper Courtois (above) has leaped to the defence of his team-mate – and issued him with a challenge to prove his language skills are actually rather good.

“I get on best with the young players like Fede [Valverde] Brahim, before with [Sergio] Reguilon... I have Casemiro by my side and I also speak a lot with him, also with Isco and Eden [Hazard]... they are who I spend most time with,” Courtois toldMarca.

“In the end, I’m an easy person to get along with. I speak four languages (English, Dutch, French and Spanish) and I always studied German at school, so I speak a little bit. And, with so many Brazilian team-mates, I’m learning a bit of Portuguese.

“I like to keep up my English with Gareth, although he speaks better Spanish than people think. He could give an interview in Spanish perfectly well. I speak to him a lot, I also like golf.

“Gareth does everything to win matches.

“They always go after him for the same things: golf, the language... I want to see him go out and give an interview in Spanish because he speaks very well in the dressing room, with lots of teammates and he understands it very well.

“But it’s his thing if he prefers to speak English, it would only be to stop people saying these things [about his Spanish] and they can see that he’s very devoted.”