Gareth Bale Photo: VCG

Gareth Bale appears to have gone from one of the world's best-paid footballers to one of the world's best-paid golfers this season.

The Welshman did not even travel to Manchester for the second leg of Real Madrid's UEFA Champions League round-of-16 second leg. Los Blancos boss Zinedine Zidane had made it clear that the forward would not be part of his plans were he to make the trip with the rest of the squad and Bale chose to stay behind.

He "preferred not to play," Zidane told the media in a pre-match conference that featured several questions about Bale's absence from the squad.  

It made for a stark contrast between photos of suspended club captain Sergio Ramos suited and booted in the empty stands of the Etihad to cheer on his teammates and those taken by Spanish newspapers of Bale enjoying a round of golf with his newfound free time.

Perhaps that is par for the course for the Welshman, who is known as "The Golfer" by his teammates as revealed by goalkeeper Thibault Courtois last year.

He missed a game against former club Spurs in the Audi Cup last summer because he felt "unwell" but was seen playing golf at the same time.

Bale has made no secret of his love for the sport, he has a three-hole coruse built in his back garden. They are not just any holes and include the famous 17th at TPC Sawgrass, the Postage Stamp from Royal Troon, and the Augusta National's Golden Bell.

He might have a lot more time to return to Wales to play his own backyard next season.

Reports suggest that the Wales winger has no intention of leaving the Bernabeu and is happy to see out his contract, which runs out in 2022.

"Gareth is fine. He has two years left on his contract," his agent Jonathan Barnett told BBC Sport last month. "It's a great loss that he's not in the Real Madrid team at the moment but he will not leave.

"He likes living in Madrid and he is going nowhere... He is still as good as anyone else in the team. It's up to Zinedine Zidane... Of course there's been interest but there's hardly a club in the world which can afford him."

That was not the case last summer and Bale reportedly feels let down by the club's decision to renege on a deal that was agreed with Chinese Super League side Jiangsu Suning last summer.

The Nanjing-based outfit had reportedly offered the former Southampton youngster 1 million pounds per week, a deal that would have made him the highest paid player in the world. Bale was ready to go, no doubt armed with the information on the best golf courses in the Nanjing area before Real did a U-turn.

A 7-2 defeat to Atletico Madrid in a preseason game was the reason with Real asking for a fee from the Chinese club who were unwilling to stump it up at the 11th hour. Bale stayed but he has not featured often, unsurprising given Zidane said Bale leaving Madrid would be "best for everyone" before the China move collapsed, with another line from preseason, "If he leaves tomorrow, great."

The Welshman was not a first-choice pick for ­Zidane during the Frenchman's first spell in charge and he has not played for Zidane since La Liga returned from its coronavirus lockdown.

Real Madrid went on a 10-game winning streak to win the title but Bale watched from the stands, not adding to his 16 appearances this season.

Instead he has amused himself with pretending to be asleep or fashioning binoculars with a roll of surgical tape while on the bench against Alaves and Granada respectively. In one game he even laughed when fifth and final sub Brahim Diaz came on meaning Bale would stay on the bench.

He looked like he would rather be anywhere else when the club celebrated winning La Liga for the first time in three seasons.

'In that order'

Bale has perhaps not helped himself. He posed with a "Wales, Golf, Madrid, In that order." flag - a reference to his priorities in the view of Welsh fans - when on international duty. Wales had just qualified for Euro 2020 after beating Hungary 2-0 at the Cardiff City Stadium and Bale carried the flag during their celebrations.

But then he does not understand the way he has been treated by the club or its fans. The Real Madrid faithful have never quite taken to him and have booed, jeered and whistled him on more than one occasion.

One of those was after posing with the flag, when he came on against Real Sociedad last November, but that does not explain the boos when he was replaced in the Clasico against Barcelona last March.  

The thing is that since arriving from Spurs in 2013 for 86 million pounds - making him the world's most expensive player at the time - Bale has been arguably the ultimate big game player for the side.

In February last year, Bale told Four Four Two that he had not spoken to Zidane since scoring two goals for the Frenchman to beat Liverpool in the 2018 Champions League final.

No wonder it was awkward when Zidane returned to the club a month later, the former Real Madrid and Juventus midfielder reportedly unable to forget Bale's post-match interview in Kiev.

"Obviously I need to play every week, something that hasn't been the case this season," Bale said. "I'll have to sit down with my agent and talk about it."

Bale's decison appears to be made, as his agent pointed out, but as Zidane found out ahead of the Manchester City match there are plenty who want to talk about little else.

It appears to have gone past the point of no return for the 31-year-old, so the real question is whether anyone can afford to take the Welsh wizard off Zidane's hands or if Real Madrid can afford them not to.