Gareth Bale Gets Double Warning After Real Madrid Meeting with Cristiano Ronaldo

Gareth Bale has been warned by Zlatan Ibrahimovic that his Real Madrid dream could turn into a nightmare, while Wales boss Chris Coleman insists the world’s most expensive player is not fit ahead of this weekend's La Liga debut.

Bale met with Cristiano Ronaldo on Wednesday in what has been labelled the £165 million handshake by Ben Curtis of the Daily Mirror. The former Spurs star’s transfer fee broke the previous record set by Ronaldo, per BBC Sport, and now the pair will work together to break Barcelona’s hold on the Spanish title.

Saturday has been earmarked for the long-awaited debut of Bale, when Madrid travel to Villarreal. However, he faces the slightly underwhelming prospect of immediately reverting to left-back, as Madrid cope with a shortage of options in defence.

Serious question marks also surround the fitness of the Welshman, who barely featured for Spurs during preseason due to a foot injury. Medical staff deemed him only capable of 30 minutes for Wales against Serbia on Tuesday—courtesy of a tight groin.

Wales boss Coleman is adamant Bale would be taking a major risk by starting at the weekend, and he stated his belief that the explosive forward only has 45 minutes in the tank. Andrew Gwilym of The Independent provides Coleman’s quotes:

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If he starts Saturday, he will not finish the game. I would be amazed if he does. We have looked at him in these 10 days and he is nowhere near ready for 90 minutes even if Spanish football is slower.

He may start, but he won't finish the game. He may get 45 minutes … but he has only had four training sessions in two months which is dangerous.

He played 30 minutes (for Wales) but after 15 minutes he looked tired.

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Bale’s game is hugely reliant upon his physical attributes, which allow him to show just about any defender in the world a clean pair of heels, while his ball-striking ability and aerial prowess both originate from his power to explode.

As Coleman highlights, when robbed of those gifts Bale becomes a shadow of the player who demands an £85 million transfer fee, and that creates a dangerous situation according to Ibrahimovic.

The Swede knows all about the pressure to perform in Spain after he spent one unhappy season at Barcelona, and he warned Bale in Ben Smith’s report for BBC Sport that better players than the Welshman have been turned upon by the Madrid crowd:

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No footballer is worth paying that amount of money for. There is a lot of pressure on him.

I know that when Zinedine Zidane played for Madrid, the fans were whistling against him. If they can whistle against Zidane, for me one of the best players in history, I hope Bale has a lot of patience.

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Madrid are currently level with Barcelona in La Liga after victories in their opening three matches, so pressure is on Bale to ensure his arrival does not disrupt that form this weekend.