Man Utd? Tottenham? Schalke make their own plea for Bale to join them next season

Stefan Bienkowski

• Updated: 28 Jun 2021 10:16 BST
• 3 min read

Where Gareth Bale will be playing his football next season is undoubtedly one of the biggest stories ahead of the summer transfer window.

The Real Madrid winger was famously frozen out of Zinedine Zidane’s side to the point that he was forced to return to Tottenham Hotspur on loan last season to pick up game time.

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Linked with a move to Manchester United for a number of seasons, now may be the perfect time for Bale to finally make the move to Old Trafford. However, one plucky German club may be about to scupper any plans of that nature.

On Saturday afternoon Schalke fans at the Johan Cruijff Arena took in Wales’ clash with Denmark with a hug sign urging the Madrid star to instead sign for Schalke, despite the club recently being relegated to the second tier of German football.

The club itself then picked up on this and made their own plea, with a humorous post saying “Gelsenkirchen is ready for you, Gareth” with a picture of a golf course in the German city that Schalke are based in.

Naturally, this was all just a bit of a joke and some light-hearted fun. However, it doesn hitn at where the former Tottenham star may now be thinking about spending his future.

Where will Bale play his football next season?

With a contract at Madrid that still has another year left to run on it, it seems unlikely that Bale will be able to go anywhere without the Spanish club’s blessing anytime soon.

However, with Carlo Ancelotti now calling the shots in the Spanish capital, Bale may be slightly more inclined to stay put at Madrid and play out the remainder of his contract before ultimately hanging up his boots in 2022.

Either way, it seems unlikely that the Wales international will ever get that move to Manchester United or indeed enjoy a third stint at Tottenham anytime soon.