Coutinho joins Bayern, Real Madrid set to beat Barcelona to sign Neymar, Alexis Sanchez makes shock exit decision and more: Transfer Roundup, 19 August 2019

Zinedine Zidane confirms Gareth Bale is staying

After drawing much flak for his insensitive comments about a Gareth Bale departure earlier this summer, Zinedine Zidane seems to have been forced by circumstances to put his faith in the Welshman. Bale was influential in Real Madrid's 3-1 win over Celta Vigo in the season opener and Zizou confirmed that Bale will be staying at Real Madrid beyond the summer.

He said,

"We talked about it before the match, I think we talked about it two or three times to say that he is going to stay. And all the players that are here now are only thinking about this season.

"I think this is true considering the way Gareth performed, but not only Gareth. I think that everyone played a good game. All we have to do is to think about this season and I am sure that he and all the other players only think about staying here and play."

About the author

Shambhu is a European and international football journalist at Sportskeeda who focuses on previews, listicles and news articles. An ardent Manchester United supporter since before his teenage years, he started following the Red Devils by age 10 watching MUTV on television. Shambhu is also a highly-revered rapper and a playback singer on Spotify, having a whopping 1 million monthly listeners.

For his articles, Shambhu believes in triple-checking every piece of information, relying on trusted websites like Transfermarkt and Opta, and staying away from speculative publications. He believes that his law degree helped him to be more articulate and meticulous with his content and one of his core strengths is seamlessly involving emotion in his write-ups owing to the love for the sport. For Sportskeeda, has done exclusive interviews with Spanish legends Gaizka Mendieta and Fernando Morientes so far, and his articles boast of a huge readership of close to 50 million.

Shambhu's favorite footballer is Lionel Messi, and the Argentine attaining glory in 2022 is his favorite FIFA World Cup moment. He believes only Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland could replicate Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo's rivalry in the years to come. His favorite manager is Sir Alex Ferguson due to the Scot's unmatched longevity at the top.

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Edited by Arvind Sriram