Gareth Bale has often been criticised for not being fluent in Spanish, but one of his Real Madrid teammates has revealed the Welshman's communication skills are not as bad as many might think.
Things have not been smooth sailing for Bale over the past year, with the player, who is often subjected to boos from his own supporters of late, having been heavily tipped to leave the Santiago Bernabeu.
There were claims that Bale does not speak fluent Spanish like most of the Los Blancos squad, but goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois has now suggested otherwise.
"In the end, I'm an easy person to get along with. I speak four languages (English, Dutch, French and Spanish) and I always studied German at school, so I speak a little bit. And, with so many Brazilian teammates, I'm learning a bit of Portuguese.
"I like to keep up my English with Gareth, although he speaks better Spanish than people think. He could give an interview in Spanish perfectly well. I speak to him a lot, I also like golf.
"Gareth does everything to win matches.
"They always go after him for the same things: golf, the language... I want to see him go out and give an interview in Spanish because he speaks very well in the dressing room with lots of teammates and he understands it very well.
"But it's his thing if he prefers to speak English, it would only be to stop people saying these things (about his Spanish) and they can see that he's very devoted."
