Wales international Gareth Bale has officially left Real Madrid amid ambitious links to the likes of Rangers.
The 32-year-old winger leaves the Bernabéu after nine seasons in Spain and despite a rocky spell in Madrid left an emotional goodbye on his official social media accounts.
Describing the stint as a “dream” come true, Bale paid tribute to the fans, club and staff at Real Madrid as the curtain came down on an illustrious spell in Spain where the winger won three La Liga titles and five Champions Leagues amid 16 major honours.
Signed for a then world record £85.3m in 2013 [BBC Sport] in total Bale played 258 games for the Madridistas, scoring 106 goals and laying on 67 assists.
Attention will now turn to where Gareth Bale will play next and Rangers had been remarkably mooted as a potential destination earlier in the season.
Rangers-linked Gareth Bale leaves Real Madrid
Spanish outlet Sport had claimed that Rangers were amongst the suitors for the ex-Tottenham winger alongside Spurs, Newcastle United, AC Milan and Cardiff City.
That’s quite the suggestion and it’s not clear if Rangers remain in the running or if the club were ever seriously interested in making what would be a majorly expensive and ambitious move.
We get the feeling that these links might have been with a view to Gareth Bale linking up with Wales teammate Aaron Ramsey at Rangers, had the Juventus loanee stayed at the club.
Ramsey, 31, spent the second half of the season on loan at Rangers but struggled for fitness as the club surrendered the league title to Celtic and reached the Europa League Final.
After missing the decisive spot kick in that game and lifting the Scottish Cup, Ramsey officially announced his departure from Rangers and with that may have gone any (faint) hopes of signing Gareth Bale.
Speaking of Aaron Ramsey, the ex-Rangers midfielder could be on his way out of Juventus if Italian reports are to be believed.