Gareth Bale could stay at Tottenham beyond his season-long loan deal, according to his agent.
The Wales forward has returned to Spurs on loan, seven years after leaving the north London club for Real Madrid in an £85million transfer. Bale helped Real to four Champions League triumphs but had been frozen out at the Bernabeu after falling out with boss Zinedine Zidane.
The 31-year-old remains a Real Madrid player, but his agent Jonathan Barnett has admitted Bale's career in the Spanish capital has effectively already come to a close.
Asked if Bale could stay at Spurs beyond his one-season loan, Barnett told talkSport: “Yeah, there are lots of opportunities; it’s up to him.
“The most important thing is for him to enjoy his football and that he’s playing well. As long as that’s happening, it’ll all be fine.
“He’s a mature man now and he knows what he wants out of life. He’s probably the most successful footballer Britain has ever produced, and there’s lots of things he still wants to do with his life, so we’ll have to wait and see.”
Bale's Tottenham arrival boosts boss Jose Mourinho, who can deploy the pacy forward alongside Harry Kane and Son Heung-min. Barnett said his player's return to Spurs had proved straightforward, especially after his Madrid career had turned sour.
“It was a fairly easy decision,” he added. “He had other choices but Tottenham is his love, he loves Tottenham and at the end of the day that’s the one he wanted.
“It’s good to see him happy. If he was going to move this summer, it was only to somewhere where he could smile again and be happy — he wasn’t just going to move for the sake of it.
“We had other clubs, maybe bigger clubs than Tottenham, interested, but he had to be happy with where he went and I think he is now.
“It was all agreed his career at Real Madrid was over so it was quite easy once we realised it was serious. It was a build-up of a clash of personalities, a build-up of not being supported, it was many different things.
“For somebody who has done as well as he has for Real Madrid, he didn’t get the respect he deserved and that was a big problem.
“What he’s achieved for Real Madrid, they should be kissing the floor that he walks on.”
