'We know who the real parasite is!' - Bale hits back at Spanish criticism
FT Desk
- 25 Mar 2022 16:20 GMT
- 3 min read
Gareth Bale has hit back at claims from a Spanish newspaper that referred to him as a “parasite” at Real Madrid, due to his contrasting performances for club and country.
The 32-year-old forward put in a heroic performance for Wales on Thursday night, when he scored two goals to ensure a 2-1 win over Austria and his team’s progress to the semi-finals of World Cup qualification.
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The player’s brace was celebrated in Wales, but in Spain it raised a number of eyebrows due to the fact that Bale was seemingly too injured to play for Madrid in Sunday’s 4-0 defeat to Barcelona, just four days prior.
As such, pundits and sections of the Spanish media criticised Bale harshly for seemingly only making an effort to play for his country, with Marca taking things to a new level when an editorial referred to the forward as a “parasite” who “sucked the Euros from the club treasury” alongside a caricature of the player’s head biting into the skin of the club as a parasite.
Marca’s remarks were joined by other members of the Spanish media, with El Chiringuito TV host Cristobal Soria going as far as to demand that Madrid sack Bale immediately for continuing to “disrespect” the Spanish giants.
— Gareth Bale (@GarethBale11) March 25, 2022
'Who is holding these journalsits accountable?'
However, it was the Spanish newspapers depiction of Bale and comments that led to Bale making a statement on Friday, in which he pointed out the dangers of publicly berating athletes and suggested that such poor journalism standards at Marca may, in fact, be the “real parasites” in this matter.
“At a time where people are taking their own lives because of the callousness and relentlessness of the media, I want to know, who is holding these journalists and the news outlets that allow them to write articles like this accountable?” said the Madrid player in a statement on Twitter.
He added: “I hope that by the time our children are of an age where they are able to ingest news, that journalism ethics and standards will have been enforced more stringently.
“So I want to use my platform to encourage change in the way we publicly talk about, and criticise people, simply for the most part, not meeting the often unrealistic expectations that are project onto them. We all know who the real Parasite is!”
