Final Departure: Gareth Bale to Real Madrid in "record" £86m transfer

Gareth Bale completed his move to Real Madrid from Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday night, for a fee Spurs – but not Real Madrid – insisted broke Cristiano Ronaldo’s world record.

While Tottenham said they had been paid €100m for Bale – £86m  – sources in Spain described the fee as €90m, or £78m. The record, before Sunday, was the £80m (€94m) that Real Madrid paid Manchester United for Ronaldo in 2009.

Bale has signed a six-year deal and will be presented at the Santiago Bernabeu, which has had a stage erected for a week, at midday.

After weeks of negotiations, the 24-year-old winger, the winner of the Professional Footballers’ Association Player of the Year and Football Writers’ Association Footballer of the Year for his remarkable 2012-13 season, was confirmed as a Real Madrid player on the websites of the two clubs yesterday evening.

Spurs chairman Daniel Levy said Bale had only been sold because his head had been turned by Real Madrid. “Gareth was a player we had absolutely no intention of selling as we look to build for the future,” Levy said. “He is a player whose career we have fostered and developed and he was only a year into his new four-year contract.

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