Jack Harper tells his remarkable story from Real Madrid pow wows with Ronaldo and Bale to a brutal health battle

Jack Harper was seen as one of the game's rising stars when he was rattling in the goals for Real Madrid's youth teams as a teenager. But nearly 10 years on from his exit at the Santiago Bernabeu, the former Scotland U19 international is just happy to be playing football again, albeit with Spanish fourth division minnows Linense.

The 28-year-old was born and raised in Malaga, but speaks with a Scottish accent inherited from both of his parents. Harper was picked up by the La Liga giants at the age of just 13 in 2009 and went onto become a prolific scorer in the club's famed La Fabricia (The Factory) youth academy, where he played alongside future Los Blancos stars Dani Carvajal and Lucas Vazquez.

The forward ultimately failed to make the grade at Madrid and ended up leaving the club in 2015 with two years still remaining on his contract in search of first team football but has fond memories of training sessions with Galacticos icon Zinedane Zidane and brief encounters with superstars Gareth Bale and Cristiano Ronaldo when he was out injured.

In an interview with SPORTbible, he said: "You’d arrive on the day and he [Zidane] would call you to do crossing, finishing and one-on-one training. You've probably seen the videos when he's in the first team, setting up Modric and Bale. The pressure of finishing in front of him was brilliant.

"I was there for two months and Cristiano Ronaldo was always there recovering – not from injuries, but just recovering from game to game. A couple of times, Ronaldo reminded me that I had to go to the gym and get stronger to keep away from the injuries. At the same time, he'd be flexing his muscles. That was a surreal moment.

"I would talk to Gareth Bale as well. We had a decent relationship