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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Sport
Mark Jones

Real Madrid immediately give away Gareth Bale's shirt number after 'erasing' Wales star

Gareth Bale's Real Madrid No.11 shirt has already been reassigned as the Spanish giants waste no time in moving on from the Welshman.

Bale is in London to complete a season-long loan deal with former club Tottenham which will see both Spurs and Real pay his wages for the next year.

Although the 31-year-old then has another year on his contract after this season, there would now seem to be very little chance that he will pull on the Los Blancos shirt again after spending seven seasons in the Spanish capital.

Bale won two La Liga titles and four Champions League trophies during his time at Madrid, but the latter seasons of his stay at the club were blighted with issues over form and fitness as well as clashes with manager Zinedine Zidane.

La Liga show that Bale's No.11 shirt has been reassigned to Asensio (La Liga.com)

Athough the Tottenham loan is not official at the time of writing, Real have seemingly moved swiftly to demonstrate that they have moved on.

The club's squad list on the La Liga website now shows Spain international Marco Asensio as the club's new No.11, with Brazilian youngster Vinicius Jr taking his old No.20 shirt.

Intriguingly, Bale hasn't been removed from the squad altogether but has instead been assigned the unfamiliar No.25 shirt.

The same squad list shows Bale as the No.25 (La Liga.com)

The move comes after Real were said to be 'erasing' Bale from the club by the Spanish press, who noticed that the Welshman was not being included in any club media as the players returned to pre-season training.

Bale's shirts had also been removed from a display at the club shop, while he was also not in any of the promotional images for this season's kit.

The forward will hope that a return home to Tottenham and Premier League will prove to be just what he needs as he bids to kickstart his career ahead of next summer's European Championships with Wales.

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