Wales and Real Madrid star Gareth Bale has hit back at Spanish newspaper Marca for their scathing attack on him earlier this week.
Journalist Manuel Julia Dorado went on an astonishing rant about the Welshman in a column for Marca, labelling Bale as a “parasite.”
This scathing attack from the Spanish site came before Bale scored a brace to fire Wales into a World Cup playoff final against either Scotland or Ukraine, whose game has been postponed due to the ongoing invasion of Ukraine from Russia.
In a statement on via his Twitter page, Bale labelled the sites rant as “slanderous, derogatory, and speculative journalism,” by Marca.
He added: “I have witnessed the toll the media can take on people’s mental and physical health.
“I want to use my platform to encourage change in the way we publicly talk about and criticise people, simply for the most part, not meeting the often unrealistic expectations that are projected onto them.”
Bale has come under fire in Spain for his seemingly laissez-faire attitude towards playing for Real Madrid.
The 32-year-old has found minutes in the Los Blancos first team scarce in recent years, and as a result he has turned towards another hobby golf – which has only seen the relationship between Bale and Real Madrid sour further.
Despite his seemingly broken relationship with the La Liga leaders, Bale has played a big part in the clubs success while he was playing regularly. He scored a brace in the 2018 Champions League final against Liverpool, with his overhead kick being arguably the greatest Champions League final goal ever.
He has won a total of 17 trophies with Madrid, scoring 106 goals and registering 67 assists in 256 games since joining from Tottenham Hotspur for a then club-record fee of £86m.