Wales star Gareth Bale is set to turn down a £10m-a-year deal to return to the Premier League to start life as a professional golfer at a club in his native Cardiff.
The 32-year-old Real Madrid player is set to leave the Spanish giants at the end of the season with his £30m-a-year contract ending on June 30.
Bale’s love of golf is well known and he will take a 99.2% pay cut to work in the pro shop at Whitchurch Golf Club. His duties will include organising junior competitions and teaching the club’s juniors, selling confectionary and cleaning the pro shop.
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A spokesperson for Bale said: “Gareth’s love of golf is well known and, after taking on the ambassador’s role with the R&A, he wanted something more full-time in golf.
“This will allow him to begin the journey to becoming a full-time coaching professional so he can combine his love of playing and helping youngsters get into the game.”
The Bale camp also confirmed two Premier League clubs had tabled “serious” offers for the Welsh talisman but added that “Gareth believes now is the time to start ‘a new phase in his life’.”
A Whitchurch Golf Club spokesperson added: “We are delighted to welcome Gareth to our team later this summer.
“We were seriously impressed with his passion for golf and knowledge of what we will require him to do. Not every millionaire footballer could swap that life for a much less glamorous existence of answering the phone, selling a variety of flavoured flapjacks and building our junior golf programme.
“And he is fully aware he won’t get any special treatment from us. He will be treated like any new assistant pro would.”