Bale practices tennis with Santana before returning to Madrid

Gareth Bale rests these days in Marbella before rejoining the discipline of Real Madrid after his year on loan at Tottenham. The Welshman usually spends part of his holidays in the Malaga town because his representative, Jonathan Barnett, has a house there. And besides playing golf, which he loves, he also has fun playing tennis.

This Monday he did it in the company of a glory of the Navy, the legendary Manolo Santana, who received him with open arms at the club that the Madrid native has run since 1997 and that bears his name, the Manolo Santana Racquets Club Marbella.

The 32-year-old Madrid footballer was photographed with the 83-year-old former tennis player and winner of Wimbledon, Roland Garros and the US Open, who surely gave him good advice. The official club account published the photo on their social networks, with a kind message: “Always welcome, Gareth Bale, to your home.” Which denotes that it is not the first time that the British go to the Racquets slopes.

Return uncertain

Real Madrid has not clarified when exactly it expects Bale's return to join pre-season training, although he hopes it will be throughout this week and, in principle, he is counting on him for the next season, since, in addition, the white striker is willing to continue in the team with which he still has one year of contract. However, it would not be unusual for the next one to occur, since the player sponsors a Golf tournament at Celtic Manor, the Wales Open, This year it will be called Cazoo Open supported by Gareth Bale and will be held from Thursday 22 to Sunday 25.