SPORT: Football
AC Milan want to sign Gareth Bale in summer transfer with Welsh winger finally set to quit Real Madrid.

AC MILAN are report­ed­ly plot­ting a sum­mer trans­fer swoop for Gareth Bale.

The 32-year-old is out of con­tract with Real Madrid at the end of the season.

And the $851,000-a-week star seems cer­tain to leave the Bern­abeu amid con­tin­u­ing media attacks on him.

Bale will look for a new club in the sum­mer — but could hang up his boots after the World Cup in Qatar.

How­ev­er, that has not deterred the Serie A giants, accord­ing to jour­nal­ist Rudy Galetti.

He states that Milan’s sport­ing direc­tor Pao­lo Mal­di­ni has been in talks with the Welsh forward’s representatives.

And those dis­cus­sions were designed to dis­cov­er what Bale’s terms would be and his inten­tions for the future.

Home­town club Cardiff have been linked with an auda­cious swoop for the Wales star.

For­mer employ­ers Tot­ten­ham, who he spent last sea­son on loan at, are also believed to be inter­est­ed in bring­ing him back.

Bale has only fea­tured five times for Real Madrid this term and found the net once.

But that did not stop him from scor­ing twice for his coun­try last week against Aus­tria to fire Wales to the brink of World Cup qualification.

That led to yet more crit­i­cism as he was slammed by Span­ish media TWICE in 24 hours as they labelled him a “par­a­site”.

He retialit­ed by deliv­er­ing a pow­er­ful warn­ing that “mali­cious” attacks can dam­age ath­letes’ men­tal health and “send them over the edge”.

Bale’s injury woes have been well-doc­u­ment­ed but he will be a focal point for Wales should they bank them­selves a spot in Qatar in November.

But the Mid­dle East­ern com­pe­ti­tion could be Bale’s swan­song unless the prospect of a switch to Milan proves to be too strong.