Real Madrid forward and Wales captain Gareth Bale has hit back at Spanish publication Marca for a column which described him as a "parasite". The three-time Champions League winner slammed the media publication after scoring a brace for Wales against Austria. He expressed that the social media and press give too much pressure on athletes to perform consistently.


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Bale has been criticised in Madrid, as it has been perceived that he is more committed to playing for the Wales national team than for his club side and Spanish La Liga giants Real Madrid. He also helped his country reaching the EURO semi-finals in 2016.


Gareth Bale's post on social media



"At a time where people are taking their own lives because of the relentlessness and the callousness of the media, I want to know [just] who is holding these journalists and the news outlets that allow them to write articles like this accountable?"


"I hope that by the time my children are of an age where they are able to ingest news, journalism ethics and standards will have been enforced more stringently. We all know who the real parasite is!" Bale wrote on a tweet.


The column in Marca accused Bale, who joined Real Madrid from English Premier League side Tottenham Hotspur for a then world-record fee of 100 million Euros ($132 million) in 2013, of "sucking the club's money".


(With PTI inputs)