Zinedine Zidane vague on Gareth Bale’s Real Madrid future

Apr 08, 2019 06:00 am

Zinedine Zidane refused to guarantee Gareth Bale's future at Real Madrid after the Welshman struggled again in a 2-1 La Liga victory over Eibar on Saturday.

Karim Benzema scored twice at the Santiago Bernabeu as Real came from behind after Marc Cardona, starting only after an injury to Pedro Leon in the warm-up, gave Eibar a surprise lead. Bale was substituted again to whistles with 14 minutes left, a conciliatory hand slap from Zidane offering little consolation as he trudged off.

Asked afterwards if Bale would be at Real next season, Zidane said: "We'll see, I'm not going to tell you what's going to happen. Gareth has two years left on his contract. We will see. It is not the time to talk about this."

Benzema's trajectory, however, has been the opposite - the Frenchman has scored six goals in five La Liga games, four of them since Zidane took over.

"Karim has had a great season," Zidane said.

"His goals have perhaps changed people's perception of him, but he has never changed as a player." - AFP