Gareth Bale is the 'future' of Real Madrid and won't join Manchester United this summer, says agent

Jonathan Barnett denies his client will leave the Bernabeu this summer and says the Wales international is 'very happy' at current club

Gareth Bale (GETTY IMAGES)

Gareth Bale will stay at Real Madrid beyond the summer and believes that president Florentino Perez still considers him “the future” of the club, according to the player’s agent Jonathan Barnett.

Having been widely criticised for his low-key performance in the Champions League semi-final first leg defeat to Juventus, Bale’s future at Madrid has again been cast in doubt in Spain. However, Barnett, who negotiated Bale’s £86m move to Madrid from Tottenham Hotspur in 2013 said the player was not considering a move back to the Premier League.

Manchester United are eager to sign Bale, having missed out on him two years ago, and have built much of their summer transfer strategy around the player. Barnett said that a move away is not on the agenda for Bale at the moment. “Gareth is wanted by every club in the world,” Barnett told The Independent. “He is one of the top three players on earth. But why he would want to leave Real Madrid?

“Gareth’s future is at Real Madrid ... in his first year he won the Champions League and the cup in Spain. This time he is in the semi-finals of the Champions League. Why would he go somewhere else?”

As for the criticism that has been directed at Bale by Madrid supporters, and in the Spanish media, Barnett said that it was not an issue for the player. “He’s not a schoolboy. He doesn't need a nanny. He’s a footballer. He is appreciated at the club. When the president of the club says that he is the future of the Real Madrid he knows he has the backing of Florentino Perez. He has the backing of everyone there.

“He is the future of Real Madrid. Why should he go anywhere else? Every club in the world wants him but why would he be tempted? He plays for a football club where he is very happy and that club happens to be the champions of Europe.”

Perez described Bale as “the key to the club’s future” in an interview at the end of last month when the criticism of the 25-year-old intensified. After the defeat in Turin, the ITV pundit Roy Keane said that the Madrid team had “played with ten men”, saying that Bale’s effect on the game had been non-existent. The Juventus game had been only his second back in the team since a calf injury had ruled him out for a couple of weeks.

Carlo Ancelotti, the Madrid manager, has been consistent in his backing of the player, saying that Bale would always play when fit. After a successful debut season, he has been the focus of discontent among supporters and did not perform in the Champions League first leg against Atletico Madrid. Nevertheless, the player himself is determined to stay at the club unless his position become untenable.

Despite the continued domination of Cristiano Ronaldo, around whom the team is built, Bale and his representatives are not countenancing leaving the club in the near future. He signed a six-year contract until 2019 and thus far United have been given no encouragement that he would be prepared to leave two years into that deal.