Winger was also bought on the cheap, according to the Real supremo.
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Real Madrid president Florentino Perez has revealed that Premier League champions Manchester United were also in the running for wide man Gareth Bale this summer before the Welshman opted to move to the Santiago Bernabeu instead, according to reports in the Daily Mail.
The playmaker eventually signed for the Liga giants in a world-record transfer valued at a reported 100 million euros, with Bale agreeing a bumper six-year deal with los Blancos worth a staggering 300,000 euros per week.
However, the Madrid president has now confirmed that the Red Devils had also lodged a bid with Bale’s former club Tottenham Hotspur during the summer window for the 24-year-old, before he opted to move to the Spanish capital instead, with Perez claiming that it had been Bale’s dream to play for the club ever since he was a young boy.
And, Perez was also quick to point out that in actual fact, the big-money signing of the playmaker was not that expensive after all, despite the mind-blowing numbers associated with his move to the Santiago Bernabeu.
“Bale has come cheaply,” Perez told Cadena SER radio station. “Signing the best players out there is Madrid’s philosophy and Bale was the best available player on the market this summer. We had been following him for two years.
“Tottenham did not want to sell. We learned that Manchester United had made an offer and we made one ourselves.
“Since childhood he had had the dream of playing for Real Madrid and he asked us to make it possible for him to come.”
Bale scored on his Madrid debut earlier this month in a Liga encounter against high-flying Villarreal at El Madrigal, although the winger is currently sidelined with injury.