Saturday, September 7, 2013

The winger was "unsettled" when turning up for his first training session in the Spanish capital, but is confident that working with the best players and coaches will improve him

Gareth Bale believes he can only improve at Real Madrid following his world-record €100 million move from Tottenham.

The Wales winger completed his transfer to the Santiago Bernabeu on Monday following 110 days of negotiations - according to his agents - and he believes training and working with the top names in football will take him to the next level.

"I'm very excited, if you're training and playing with the best players it can only rub off well on you," he told BT Sport. "And obviously Cristiano Ronaldo for me is the best player in the world. He's got everything as a footballer.

"I'm going to be training with him and watching what he does in games, playing with him and learning off the best player. For me I can only see one way and that’s for me to improve.
"I've got a great manager [Carlo Ancelotti], great coaches [like Zinedine] Zidane, the best of everything at Real Madrid and that’s exactly what I thought when they were interested. To have the best you are going to learn and become a better player.

"I know now I'm going to the next level in my career. It's another game of football, I need to look at it in the same way as I did before and not get distracted by external pressure. I don't read the 'papers or go on the internet too much, I learnt that when I was younger.

"I've grown up a bit, I just want to firmly concentrate on my life as a person, off the field, and on the field, purely focus on my football and I think for me that’s what I plan to do."

The BT Sport ambassador also revealed his unease when he turned up for his first training session at Valdebebas, but that it was not as bad as his maiden Spurs session.

"You go in, you feel very unsettled, you don't really know anyone," he added. "When I moved to Tottenham I knew absolutely nobody, but going to Madrid I know Luka Modric very well, so hopefully he’ll help me settle in.

"There are a few who speak English, like Ronaldo, [Alvaro] Arbeloa, Xabi Alonso and the manager and the coach. It will be lot easier than when I was younger, I'm a lot more experienced. I know full well I’ll need to impress everybody and hopefully I do."

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