Revealed: How Real Madrid tried to ‘spin’ Gareth Bale transfer to keep Cristiano Ronaldo happy – with Portuguese superstar upset at seeing transfer record broken

Portuguese superstar Ronaldo was already at Santiago Bernabeu when another big-money move was made by Real. He had headed to Spain from Manchester United for £80 million ($100m) in 2009, but was about to lose his most expensive player on the planet title to Welsh sensation Bale - whose price tag came in at £85.3m ($107m). Real wanted to keep CR7 happy, meaning that discussions with Tottenham become more difficult than they needed to be.

Darren Eales, who is now CEO at Newcastle, was Spurs’ director of football administration at the time of Bale’s transfer and has told talkSPORT of Ronaldo’s influence in tricky talks: “It was an interesting one. We were dealing with Real Madrid, who had Cristiano Ronaldo. And they wanted to get it so that Ronaldo was still the most expensive player and they were paying more, so there was a lot of negotiation about how they were going to spin it at their end because they were protecting Ronaldo. But we got there in the end – at that stage we just want to maximise the deal, obviously it was a world record transfer at the time that it took place. All of us during my time at Tottenham would have loved to keep Gareth but ultimately, he wanted to go on and have that opportunity and you couldn’t begrudge him really. He’s a great guy.”

Bale went on to spend nine years with Real Madrid, taking in 258 appearances and scoring 106 goals. He helped the Blancos to three La Liga titles, five Champions League crowns and three FIFA Club World Cup wins before heading to MLS with LAFC and announcing his retirement in January 2023.

Ronaldo enjoyed considerable success alongside Bale at Santiago Bernabeu – forming part of the fearsome BBC attacking unit that also included Karim Benzema – but his world transfer record has been smashed on a regular basis since Bale first raised that bar. The Portugal international is still doing the business at 38 years of age, with retirement not an option for him as he continues to shine at Saudi Arabian side Al-Nassr.