Is Gareth Bale the best player in the world? Probably not, but he might be turning into the most expensive one pretty soon, with Real Madrid rumored to be considering making Tottenham and impossible to refuse offer, which would set a new transfer fee record.
How much? According to the Sunday Times, Real will be offering Spurs £85 million for the Welsh midfielder, who has become much more of an attacking midfielder than a winger this season, scoring a career high 21 league goals, with Andre Villas- Boas credited for yet another upgrade in his ability.
Tottenham aren’t in a huge hurry to sell Bale, who has a contract until 2016, but despite Villas-Boas trying to persuade the men above him to keep Bale on board, some offers are truly impossible to turn down, even if the financial situation at White Hart Lane is quite positive.
For Real Madrid, Florentino Perez needs something big, and the more expensive the signing the bigger it seems. Real Madrid will likely pick up some much needed funds through at least one major sale, with Gonzalo Higuain looking like the first name to be taken off the team (Juventus?), but it’s also about winning a club presidency election. Perez brought back the Galacticos era, which like in its previous run, hasn’t been overly successful, winning only one league title since it began with Cristiano Ronaldo and Kaka arriving in 2009.
Ronaldo came after Kaka that summer, setting a new world record by being signed for £80 million from Manchester United, with no one even coming close to that price ever since. There are other players in the market, but none of them are currently after Bale, and none of them have the kind of “power appeal” Real Madrid do, which usually trumps any other team in the world.