Gareth Bale’s failure to integrate at Real Madrid should rest on his conscience, says Sergio Ramos

Gareth Bale’s failure to integrate more successfully at Real Madrid should be something that weighs on his conscience, according to club captain Sergio Ramos.

Bale has faced criticism for not embracing life in the Spanish capital more fully, with Thibaut Courtois revealing earlier this year that his team-mates call him ‘The Golfer’ due to the amount of time he spends on the golf course.

Although Ramos appreciates the role the Welshman has played in Madrid’s recent Champions League successes, the centre-back suggested his team-mate’s commitment to squad life left a bit to be desired.

Asked whether Bale was as isolated a figure in the Madrid changing room as reports in the Spanish press have suggested, Ramos replied: “I think Bale’s a great player and he’s been really important for the club in the years he’s been with us.

“Regarding what has been said about Gareth, I think time puts everything in place. Regardless of what each player does in his personal life, I think it should be respected and not even talked about. We’re free to do what we want with our free time.

“Of course, professionally, you owe yourself to a team, to a club, and you try to be as honest as possible. Afterwards, it’s up to each person to go home with a clear conscience or not.”

Despite having been in Madrid for six years, Bale does not speak Spanish confidently and has been mocked by team-mate Marcelo for only speaking English in the changing room.

But Bale, who came close to leaving Madrid for Chinese club Jiangsu Suning during the summer, has played down the criticism he gets in Spain, telling reporters last week: “I don’t listen to the critics because they don’t really know what they are on about.”

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Since his move to China broke down, Bale has started all three of Madrid’s league games to date. The 30-year-old scored twice and was then sent off on his last appearance in a 2-2 draw away to Villarreal.

Ramos, 33, was speaking at the London launch of his new eight-part documentary series El Corazón de Sergio Ramos (‘The Heart of Sergio Ramos’), which starts on Amazon Prime Video on 13 September.

Filmed over the course of the 2018-19 season, the documentary captures what Ramos describes as “one of the worst years of my professional career” as Madrid finish a distant third in La Liga and have their three-year reign as European champions abruptly ended by Ajax.

As well as documenting his on-pitch travails, the series also reveals a softer side to the rugged Spain international.

The first episode shows him cutting up bananas for his three young sons, Sergio Junior, Marco and Alejandro, and putting on Halloween face-paint with his wife, Spanish television presenter Pilar Rubio.

So does the decision to make the documentary reflect a recognition that, with a record 25 red cards for Real Madrid to his name and having famously nobbled Mo Salah in the 2018 Champions League final, Ramos has a bit of an image problem?

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“No, no way,” he said. “One of the reasons why I agreed to make this is to leave some kind of legacy, maybe for a kid who has a dream in life – and not necessarily to become a football player.

“And also for the people who love me, for my fans, to give them a different version of myself so that they can see my family and that side of my life. It’s a way of saying thank you to them. For people who are critical of what I do, maybe this will give them more information to have a proper judgement.”