Cardiff City push for shock Gareth Bale free transfer swoop ahead of 2022 Qatar World Cup – reports

Cardiff City hope to pull off an ambitious signing of Welsh national team captain Gareth Bale, according to reports.

Bale left Real Madrid at the end of the season after three years where he featured little in the first team in the capital, with one year spent on loan at former club Tottenham Hotspur.

A return to London seems unlikely but the BBC reports that Cardiff are hoping to sign the 32-year-old winger, with the club’s chairman Mehmet Dalman flying to Britain to take charge of negotiations.

He has been linked with a number of options and said of his future that he had ‘loads’ of offers, with some speculation he could move to the United State to play MLS football.

Bale was born in Cardiff but has yet to play for a Welsh club. He would need to take a paycut on his previous £600,000-a-week salary at Real, with the Championship club hoping he can spearhead them to the Premier League.

National team boss Robert Page said he had no idea on his captain’s plans.

“If I knew I would tell you,” he said. “He has been [leading Wales] the last couple of years irrespective of what he has been doing at club level.

“He will just want to go somewhere where he is playing, enjoying his football and he knows that he has got one eye on the World Cup. It will all be a plan to lead us out there.”