Gareth Bale's relationship with Zinedine Zidane is 'worse than ever' | OneFootball

The frosty relationship between Real Madrid winger Gareth Bale and coach Zinedine Zidane has hit a new low.

That’s according to ESPN, who quote “multiple sources familiar with the situation” as saying that the feud between the pair has “now become something personal”.

Zidane famously dropped Bale for the 2018 Champions League final, only for the Welshman to come off the bench and score the winning goal against Liverpool.

Since then, Bale is said to have become increasingly irritated about only being a substitute in several key matches, while Zidane is understood to have been left annoyed by the player’s reaction to being left out.

Bale started against Mallorca in mid-week but prior to that he had been an unused substitute against Valencia and Real Sociedad. He was also benched against both Manchester City and Barcelona prior to the coronavirus break.

Last year Zidane went public in urging the former Tottenham fan to leave the Bernabeu when he said: “If Bale leaves tomorrow, that would be best.”

More recently the coach has described the situation as “completely normal” while Bale’s agent Jonathan Barnett insists the 30-year-old is fine where he is for now.

A move to Major League Soccer has been mooted in recent years and though Bale is still more than capable of playing at a higher level, that might just be his only option if he wants to get out of Madrid.