Gareth Bale torn to shreds in Spanish newspaper as crazy rant takes aim at his Real career

Gareth Bale’s Real Madrid career has been petering out for some time now.

Despite the stage seemingly being set for him to succeed Cristiano Ronaldo as Los Blancos’ star man on the back of scoring twice in the 2018 Champions League final, Bale’s time in Spain has instead gone out on a whimper.

The Welshman was used minimally during Zinedine Zidane’s second spell in charge, culminating in a loan return to Tottenham Hotspur, before the possibility of redemption under Carlo Ancelotti presented itself this season.

However, things simply haven’t worked out that way with a combination of injuries and generally being out of favour at the Bernabeu leaving Bale marooned on just five games and one goal in 2021/22.

As such, it seems inevitable now that the four-time Champions League winner will look for pastures new when his contract in the Spanish capital runs out this summer.

And frankly, regardless of what may or may not have sparked his decline at the club, you could hardly blame Bale for waving goodbye to Real when you consider the way the Spanish press has treated him at times.

Even during his early days in the Iberian nation, some of the criticism fired in his direction was problematic and confronting to the extent that Ronaldo came out and defended him in public.

However, there’s good reason to think that Bale has never faced an onslaught from the media worse than what Spanish newspaper Marca have published about him this week.

According to the Daily Mail, journalist Manuel Julia Dorado wrote an astonishing column in which he compared the 32-year-old to a parasite and lamented that his Real transfer was a ‘misfortune’.

Per the Mail’s translation, the shocking rant – accompanied with a mock-up of Bale as a mosquito – read