Bale offers advice to Bellingham with swipe at Spanish press and ex-Real Madrid teammates

Former Real Madrid winger Gareth Bale has urged Jude Bellingham to learn Spanish.

Bale infamously refused to speak Spanish publicly while a Real Madrid player.

But he now says: "The biggest advice I would give him is to play the game of Real Madrid off the field. If you play that game and don't do what the media wants, talk to them and basically be a puppet, you're going to take a lot of sticks.

"So my advice is to play the Real Madrid game off the field. You have to talk after the games and try do it in Spanish. Do that kind of thing.

"You will see them (Bale's former teammates) and they will act as Galactico, doing what the press wants and playing the Madrid game. That was probably where my fall occurred. I did not want to do it. I just wanted to play soccer and go home and that made me a target.

"He is doing very well and I hope he continues to do it just as well. If he keeps working hard and doing what he's doing, the sky is the limit for him. His start in Madrid has been very good. Scoring goals is very important in a club like Real Madrid."