FEW superstars match footie ace Gareth Bale. The Welsh captain’s left leg is insured for £100million, he earns £650,000 a week and has won four Champions League medals.
After seven years in Spain with Real Madrid, his scintillating pace, match-winning free-kicks and thumping headers are going to thrill British fans once more.
Gareth Bale and his wife, Emma Rhys-Jones, at the London premiere of Bond film Spectre in 2015Credit: Rex Features
But when he landed in London today to sign a loan deal with his old side Tottenham Hotspur, the 31-year-old dad of three young children had to haul a huge amount of personal baggage off the carousel.
For the past few years the quiet family life he craves has been thrown into turmoil by troublesome relatives.
His in-laws have found themselves caught up in everything from a drugs feud, to arson, to soft-porn and international fraud.
It’s not something the multi-millionaire can easily ignore.
The pair with their girls, Alba, seven, and Nava, four
Gareth had to employ round-the-clock security due to the very real threat posed by the violent enemies of his extended family.
And when he married his childhood sweetheart Emma Rhys-Jones, 29, just over a year ago, some of the bride’s closest relatives were uninvited.
They included her jailbird dad Martin Rhys-Jones and her elderly grandparents, John and Eva McMurray, who looked after Emma when her father was banged up.
Now, though, The Sun can reveal that painful rift is over.
Emma’s jailbird dad Martin Rhys-Jones has dangerous enemiesCredit: Wales News Service
Bale isn’t just returning to these shores to be reunited with Spurs, he will be healing the wounds with Emma’s family.
Tonight her grandfather John, whose car was firebombed four years ago, said hostilities were a thing of the past.
He told The Sun: “I think the world of Gareth.
“I love him and Emma, and my three beautiful great grandchildren.
Emma’s cousin Epiphany Dring – pictured – was believed to have got on the wrong side of a Middle Eastern drug cartel
“Yes, there were some difficulties for us as a family, but that’s all in the past now. We’ve talked things through and we’re all good now.”
It is Gareth’s devotion to his childhood sweetheart, who he met at Whitchurch secondary school, that has led him to make up with her relatives.
John, 83, and Eva, 88 — Emma’s grandparents on her mother’s side — got caught up in a mysterious drugs war in 2016 when a suitcase containing more than £750,000 worth of cocaine and cash went missing from their home.
In apparent revenge, their car was set ablaze, as were two motors belonging to Emma’s aunt, Annabella Williams, 58.
Emma’s grandparents got caught up in a mysterious drugs war and their car was firebombed in 2016Credit: Collect
Annabella’s son Peter Williams, 26, then poured petrol through the letterbox of Emma’s aunt, Jane Burns, whose topless model daughter Epiphany Dring faced claims that she had taken the suitcase. Williams got a four-month suspended jail sentence.
Police believed 31-year-old Epiphany had got on the wrong side of a Middle Eastern drug cartel.
Epiphany, who has starred on several soft-porn websites, left Wales for a while, but has now returned.
Also, in trouble with the law was Emma’s uncle Graham McMurray, 53, who was spared jail for theft in 2017 after £65,000 was found hidden up the chimney of his home.
Bale gives baby daughter Nava a cuddle at the Champions League final in 2016Credit: EPA
There were genuine fears that Gareth and his children — daughters Alba, seven, and Nava, four, and two-year-old son Axel — could be targeted by the shadowy gangs involved.
Now that threat has subsided.
John, who had been upset about not attending Emma’s glitzy wedding in Spain, invited The Sun into his Cardiff home and motioned us towards his most prized wall-hanging – a framed white No11 Real Madrid shirt worn and signed for him by Gareth.
He said: “I’ve no doubt he’ll be a huge success at Spurs and me and Eva can’t wait to see him and Emma as soon as the Covid rules permit it.
Gareth Bale arrives at Tottenham training ground this morningCredit: Louis Wood – The Sun
“They’ve still got their house down the road in the Vale of Glamorgan, so I’m sure they’ll come back to Wales regularly.”
Also absent from Gareth and Emma’s wedding was her dad Martin Rhys-Jones.
She had put off getting hitched until Martin had finished prison for his part in a £2.2million fraud. Having served four years of his six-year sentence, her dad was all set to attend the couple’s big day.
But Emma was said to have fallen out with Martin, 56, because he wanted to bring along his girlfriend, Russian florist Alina Baranova, 31.
Tottenham Hotspur’s Bale scores against Liverpool in 2012Credit: AP:Associated Press
The couple were also upset when he tweeted an image of newborn Axel, which they wanted to keep private. So instead of her father by her side, it was her brother Robert by her side last June.
The ceremony was an intimate affair at a 17th century fortress in Majorca, La Fortaleza, which was used during filming of BBC spy drama The Night Manager.
None of Gareth’s Madrid teammates were invited.
Brought up by school caretaker dad Frank, 64, and operations manager mum Debbie, 63, in the Cardiff suburb of Whitchurch, Gareth enjoys riches beyond the imagination.
The footie ace has a collection of supercars including a £165k Mercedes SLS AMG
He is leaving behind a £6.5million modernist pad with a pool in Madrid and is now on the hunt for a luxury home to rent in London.
Moving back to Britain means he can spend more time at his £4million Welsh country pile, which has a three-hole golf course.
The golf-mad sportsman spent a fortune replicating world-famous tricky holes — Royal Troon’s Postage Stamp in Scotland, the 12th at Augusta and the 17th at Sawgrass, both in the US.
Gareth also invested in his own trendy sports bar in Cardiff called Elevens, named after his shirt number. And his supercars have included a £230k Ferrari GTC4Lusso, £165k Mercedes SLS AMG and £156k Lamborghini Huracán.
Gareth Bale is now hunting for a luxury home to rent in London
Spending seven years as one of Real’s Galacticos means his image is known across the globe.
His distinctive man-bun haircut and loveheart goal celebration are part of the Bale brand.
That high profile persuades global companies such as Adidas, EA Sports and Lucozade to pay for his endorsements, earning him another £10million annually.
But Gareth is not the type of footballer to be hanging around in nightclubs with celebrities and doesn’t use social media to talk about himself.
Aerial view of the 17th hole at Sawgrass, which is recreated in Bale’s back garden at his Welsh country pileCredit: 2014 Chris Condon/PGA TOUR
Teetotal, he is much more likely to spend his free evenings enjoying a meal in a local restaurant with his wife.
What he would like more than anything is to be able to focus on football, Emma and their three children.
There have been reports he struggled to gel on a personal level with other players at Spanish giant Real Madrid. What is in little doubt is that Gareth did not get on well with Real’s manager Zinedine Zidane, who preferred to keep the Wales winger on the bench.
Despite scoring two amazing goals in the 2018 Champions League final to help Zidane’s side beat Liverpool, and 100 goals in total for Real, the player was being frozen out.
Bale by numbers
£10m a year from sponsors
£4m country home in Wales
£650K a week from Real Madrid
17th hole at Sawgrass recreated in his back garden
£750K in drugs and cash went missing from home of wife’s
grandparents
Last year Zidane wanted to sell the star man to a Chinese side, where he would have earned £1million a week, but Real called off the transfer at the last minute.
It was the forward’s shortage of recent game time that resulted in his move to Spurs.
At the North London side, he will be managed by long-time admirer Jose Mourinho, who had tried to sign him in the past.
Tonight Spurs fans cheered as the striker drove through the gates of their training ground.
This is Gareth’s big chance to lay some ghosts to rest.
Not only can he prove that Real were wrong to let him go, he can also help reset strained relations with his wife’s family.
Gareth Bale arrives at Tottenham training centre for transfer talks
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Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
