Gareth Bale is back at Real Madrid and wearing the shirt number 50 in the friendly against Milan – but he can’t keep it.
Gareth Bale is back at Real Madrid and will start the friendly against AC Milan on Sunday evening. The 32-year-old Welshman with the shirt number 50 shows up.
Bale had worn the number 11 on his back since moving from Tottenham Hotspur to Madrid in the summer of 2013, but was loaned out to his ex-club last season.
Marco Asensio, meanwhile, grabbed Bale’s old number, while the returnees are now left without his ancestral number. Eden Hazard also played in a test match with the number 50 for Los Blancos after his move from Chelsea – for a very specific reason.
Gareth Bale: Number 11 is gone, 50 is not allowed
Should Bale, who still has a contract with Real until 2022, appear again for coach Carlo Ancelotti’s team this season, he will not be able to do so with the number 50. The statutes of the Spanish Football Association (RFEF) only allow clubs to have numbers from 1 to 25. In any case for professionals, because higher numbers are only allowed to be given to youth players who are not officially part of the first team.
According to the current status, only number 16 would be free. However, it is in any case questionable whether Bale will stay in Madrid – after all, he has always been considered a sales candidate.
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