Cardiff owner Vincent Tan came close to signing Gareth Bale before he joined LAFC
Cardiff City owner Vincent Tan has revealed just how close the Championship club came to signing Gareth Bale before he joined Los Angeles FC.
The Welsh forward officially signed for the MLS side on Monday, having been heavily linked to Cardiff following the expiry of his Real Madrid contract at the end of last season.
Bale had been spotted at the Bluebirds’ training grounds last week and had previously spoken of his interest in playing for his hometown club and Tan has now confirmed that the transfer did nearly happen.
Bale is set to captain Wales at the 2022 World Cup (Photo: Getty)
‘We were very, very keen, and of course it would have been a big coup for us and would have been great for Gareth Bale to play for his hometown,’ Tan told talkSPORT.
‘He actually originally wanted to come; money wasn’t the matter. We still tried to come up with a good offer for him, but finally we had to compete with a lot of big American advertisers. The commercial deals there were very good for Gareth Bale.
‘Unfortunately, the offer was too attractive to turn down. We tried our very best, but we failed.’
Bale was on the hunt for a new club following Wales’ qualification for the World Cup in November, in order to build-up fitness for the tournament and his deal with LAFC only lasts for a year although there is an option to extend it to 2024.
As a result, Tan remains hopeful that the 32-year-old could still play for Cardiff one day, adding: ‘We will see what happens. Maybe in 12 months Gareth will want to come home.
‘He has never played in Cardiff, a club he and his family are fans of. He’s still got a few years and hopefully he will come and play for Cardiff.
‘It wasn’t really about the money. Gareth wanted to help Cardiff and help Wales. It wasn’t really the money, that’s why we could negotiate with him.’
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