After Ronaldo left Madrid for Juventus in 2018, much was expected of Bale at the Spanish giants. But injuries and form didn't help the Welshman's cause in his final five years at the club. The Spanish media did not shy away in criticising Bale and he gave them all the ammunition they needed after Wales qualified for Euro 2020 when he celebrated behind a Welsh flag with the slogan: "Wales. Golf. Madrid. In that order." Naturally, that didn't go down well back in Spain back in 2019.
He said, "That slogan is the one thing I felt hard done by. For one thing, no one knew how much golf I actually played. If I ask you now how much golf you reckon I played, you’d probably say three or four times a week maybe, something along those lines? I played once every two to three weeks, but only on a day off. I'd never play a game for eight hours, I was always very professional about it. But people don't know that so they make up that slogan.
"I got absolutely slaughtered [by the Spanish media]. I felt a bit hard done by because it all comes down to misinformation. I obviously don't prioritise golf more than I do my country and my club and physically haven't done one thing wrong. I look back at it now and it's like, it is what it is. I can't do anything about it. You have to laugh or you cry. So I laughed."