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Whilst his teammates were playing Tottenham Hotspur in a pre-season match in Germany, Real Madrid outcast Gareth Bale was snapped on the golf course.

Once the most expensive footballer in the world, Bale was pictured playing at a course owned by banking giant Santander in Boadilla del Monte, a small town on the outskirts of Madrid.

The 30-year-old Welshman reportedly refused to travel with his teammates to play in the Audi Cup following the collapse of a proposed move to the Chinese Super League.

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It is thought that Bale stood to earn as much as £1million per week with Jiangsu Suning. However, Real Madrid blocked the transfer and, with the Chinese transfer window having now closed, the move appears to be dead.

Bale’s passion for golf is believed to have contributed to the breakdown in his relationship with Madrid head coach Zinedine Zidane and some of his teammates.

Gareth Bale

Indeed, the Welshman is even nicknamed ‘The Golfer’ by some of his fellow galacticos.

He reportedly plays off five and, in 2018, work was completed on a three-hole golf course at his £4m Vale of Glamorgan estate, featuring impressive replicas of some of the world’s most famous holes: the 12th at Augusta National, the eighth at Royal Troon and the 17th at TPC Sawgrass.

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In October 2017, an op-ed in Spanish newspaper El Confidencial  blamed Bale’s love of golf for his frequent injury problems.

“All these injuries add to the chronic problems of the back that he suffers and causes him discomfort,” said the piece. “An evil, that of the back, that grows when playing golf, one of his passions to which he devotes all the time he can when he does not play football.”

Main Pic: El Confidencial

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