Ronaldo, along with club captain Sergio Ramos, wants the player back.
He feels the Argentina international would be a huge signing and one that can help them continue to challenge for silverware both domestically and on the European stage.
However, it is said Bale thinks differently.
The ex-Tottenham star is concerned that his return would be a big step back for the club.
Instead, he would rather see the likes of Marco Asensio and Lucas Vasquez given a chance to shine.
AUGUSTA, Ga. In the moments prior to handing out trophies Sunday morning for the Drive, Chip and Putt National Finals at Augusta National Golf Club, Fred Couples slipped off his green jacket and draped it over the narrow shoulders of Quinn Thomas, who competed in the Boys 10-11 age group.
While fellow competitors looked on with envy, the youngster from Hannibal, Mo., noted that it was a little big. The 1992 Masters champion could only laugh and say, Dont pop off kid, youll want to wear this thing all the time.
Though winner of 15 PGA Tour titles and a former No. 1 player in the world, Couples hangs his Hall of Fame career on his lone major championship triumphand who could blame him? His two-stroke victory over Raymond Floyd, saved on the 12th hole when his tee shot came up short of the green but miraculously hung up on the bank above Raes Creek, came at a time when he clearly was the best player in the world and fulfilled his immense promise.
Couples, 57, will compete in his 32nd Masters this week, returning after a one-year absence due to yet another bout of back problems, one that still is causing him pain in another form. The upshot of foregoing a trip down Magnolia Lane was bypassing memory lane and missing the last appearance of Arnold Palmer at Augusta. He had his reasons, which are valid, but Couples wasnt cutting himself any slack Sunday under the canopy of the large oak tree behind the clubhouse here at Augusta National.
RELATED: Fred Couples lends an 11-year-old his green jacket. Hilarity ensues
Well, you know how I feel about Arnold, Couples said, beginning to explain how he regrets staying home in California at this time a year ago. Every time I saw him, he gave me a kiss on the cheek or the forehead. Every time. He was all-time great in terms of his kindness.
But it just kills me to come here and not be able to play. I cant do that. Unfortunately, that was the last time I was ever going to see Arnold. It was really a bad move that I made. And I have to live with that. But I just dont think I can come here for two or three days and not be in the tournament.
couples lets 11-year-old Quinn Thomas take his green jacket for a spin.
Chris Trotman
Dont be surprised if Couples manages to find his way onto the first page of the leader board for a day or more; his Masters record is exemplary. He shares the record with Gary Player for most consecutive cuts made: 23, spanning 1983-2007. (Couples and Player, a three-time winner, played a practice round together Sunday afternoon.) In his six Masters starts since turning 50, Couples has been 20th or better five times.
Whats more, having spent nearly all of 2016 rehabilitating his chronically cranky back, Couples has played well early this year on the Champions Tour, posting four top-six finishes in as many events, including a victory in the Chubb Classic.
RELATED: 13 favorites to win the Masters
If theres a downside, its that Augusta National, all 7,435 yards of it, traditionally doesnt treat senior citizens with the much respect.
You know, I was on a roll, Couples said, hedging his comments on his form, and then Ive been practicing for this and Ive got Paul [Marchand, his swing coach] here. Ive been trying to get better, and it kind of went the other way. Its a little sloppy.
I wasnt practicing very much, just hitting b***s a couple of days and going to play. But this is a little different. For this course, some of these holes will be like par 5s on the Champions Tour. I just have to birdie them. Which would be a par here. Does that make sense? Its hard.
Yeah, it makes sense. And, yeah, Augusta is hard even for contestants dialed in. But Couples has shown that he still has enough power off the tee to make the course more manageable than he is letting on. Nevertheless, hed like to pick up 8-10 yards by Thursday.
I was hitting it far, but then I played in a Member-Guest at my home course [Madison Club], and that was probably not a smart thing to do. I lost some distance playing with these guys and I was just knocking it around out there. So bad habits.
This week, however, is about good habits. Traditions. Couples is renewing the uncommonly precious tradition of accepting another invitation to the Masters, one that he earned 25 years ago this week. That green jacket looked great on the kid, but Couples has worn it well for the last quarter century.
And as long as he remains capable of swinging a club, h**l keep returning.
A lot people dont realize this is my favorite tournament, Couples said. To still be able to compete and play well if this were my only tournament, and Im not playing anything else, thats my happily ever after.
Not a bad way to pop off.
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Real Madrid vs Deportivo Alaves 3-0 2017 - Highlights & Goals Stewart Robson doesn"t see Bayern posing much of a threat to Real Madrid when they square off in the UCL quarterfinals.
At some point during Real Madrid"s successful trip to Leganes on Wednesday, this scribe caught himself cursing Luka Modric. The Croatian had joined the team in the 85th minute. After just a couple of plays, he had the chance to find Marco Asensio on the left with some room to run, but decided against it and passed the ball to Danilo on his right.
The realisation that, after five and a half seasons, Modric had finally taken a passing decision I disagreed with was shocking, but it was explained by my own biased interest: I wanted Asensio to get the ball in every single play until the end of the match.
As a football fan, few things are as satisfying as a successful youngster making it big for your team"s senior side. Even though Asensio doesn"t quite fit that profile -- he was signed from Mallorca at age 18, so he"s hardly a Real Madrid product -- the fact that the club invested in a fresh talent, loaned him to Espanyol so that he could develop, and then brought him back to play with some of the best offensive players in the business feels good. It seems like that policy, also applied to Dani Carvajal and Casemiro, is working like a charm.
However, Asensio"s case is special. Rooting for his success has little to do with the club"s recruiting policy or its loan agreements, but with the sheer joy of playing and watching football. Asensio is not business, he"s fun.
Marco Asensio is emerging as one of Real Madrid"s brightest young talents this season.
In the past few decades, the sport has indeed become more professional, more tactical, better structured and, yes, a bit more predictable in the way games happen and even plays within a game unfold. Very few players have the gift of making the unexpected happen, and when one of those is a young prospect of your team, it feels like you have a treasure you"d rather not share with anyone.
Asensio"s talent and self-confidence allow him to generate advantageous situations when he"s obviously in numeric or physical inferiority -- or both! His accuracy, the speed at which he moves with the ball or makes decisions, his selflessness when he can find an open team mate, it"s just a gift to watch him play. And he still carries himself without the gravity of the professional, showing the fun of the kid that loves to play and for whom football hasn"t yet become a job.
His stats this season show that he"s one of those players who shine, rather than disappear, when surrounded by talent. With nine goals in 26 matches across all competitions, he"s already surpassed his scoring figures with Espanyol last season: four in 37 matches in which he played around 1,100 minutes more than in this term. With the competition he faces in Isco and James Rodriguez in the attacking midfielder position, or Lucas Vazquez and Gareth Bale as a winger, the fact that he"s putting up those numbers is more than remarkable.
Ahead of the Madrid derby, Football Whispers looks into the stats behind Real and Atletico.
But restricting Asensio"s impact on this Real Madrid to a set of facts and figures would take us back to the conception of modern football as a numbers game, when the potential of the young leftie from Mallorca goes well beyond that. On the pitch, he takes some real madrid fans back to the times of yore when one would go to the Santiago Bernabeu every other week just to watch one single player grow and evolve. He reminds us of the coming of age of Raul Gonzalez and Emilio Butragueno, when you would see sparks of the players they would later become combined with a youthful, exuberant energy they would progressively lose as years went by.
Asensio"s performances have given many Real Madrid supporters reason to feel good about watching his team play in a way they hadn"t for a while, and that alone is already great news. But his ceiling is still unknown, and that is the most exciting aspect of the Asensio hype, even if it means having to curse Modric every once in a while.
Eduardo Alvarez covers Real Madrid and the Spanish national team for ESPN FC. Twitter: @alvarez.
LaVar Ball, Lonzo Ball join Skip and Shannon to talk reality TV show and more | UNDISPUTED
In the latest instance of putting his oversized foot in his equally oversized mouth, lavar ball blamed uclas exit from the NCAA Tournament on the slow foot speed of three white guys in the starting five.
LaVar Ball, who in November, guaranteed the Bruins would win the national championship explained why they realisticallycouldntcut down the nets in an interview with Clay Fowler of the Orange County Register on Thursday evening.
Realistically you cant win no championship with three white guys because the foot speed is too slow, Ball told Fowler. I told Lonzo One of these games you might need to go for 30 or 40 points. It turned out the that was the one game. Then once they get to the Elite 8, theyre right there.
As Fowler notes, its easy to pinpoint who Ball is referencing: Thomas Welsch, Bryce Alford, the head coachs son, and T.J. Leaf, who is so slow hes expected to be a first-round pick in the upcoming NBA Draft.
Lonzo Ball, a consensusfirst-team All-American, was anything but that in his final game in college. The 6-foot-6 freshman phenom was 4-of-10 shooting from the field with 10 points, eight assists, and four turnovers.
LaVar is right, foot speed was the issue, as no Bruin, especially his son, could stop Kentucky point guard DeAaron Fox, who poured in a career-best 39 points in Kentuckys 86-75 win over UCLA in the Sweet 16.
LaVar blames that showing on a hamstring issue Lonzo was playing through.
Trashing members of the UCLA roster, including the head coachs son, is an interesting strategyconsidering Ball has two more sons committed to play for Steve Alford.
UPDATE! Russian warships headed to US destroyers that launched Syria strikes
A Russian warship was steaming toward the area in the Mediterranean where U.S. Navy destroyers launched missile strikes into Syria, Fox News is reporting.
The Russian frigate, Admiral Grigorovich RFS-494, passed through the Bosphorus Strait "a few hours ago" from the Black Sea, the news network said, attributing the information to an unnamed U.S. defense official.
the russian ship is armed with cruise missiles and is headed the direction of the U.S. warships, according to Fox News.
The news network also reported that one of the American destroyers that launched the missiles into Syria was heading to an undisclosed location to rearm.
The latest moves came after the U.S. attacked a Syrian airbase in retaliation for chemical weapons attack against civilians, including small children.
Meanwhile, the Russian news agency TASS claimed the frigate is on a "routine voyage" and was planning to stop at the Syrian port of Tartus.
BBC Genghis Khan Image caption The 14-year-old appeared in Ballymena Magistrates" Court
A 14-year-old boy has appeared in court in Northern Ireland accused of trying to buy a sub-machine gun and 100 rounds of ammunition from the dark web.
The boy appeared in Ballymena Magistrates" Court in County Antrim.
He is charged with attempting to possess a firearm and ammunition with intent to endanger life.
A police officer told the court that she believed the boy"s intention was to intimidate another person using the weapon.
He was arrested at a retail park in Coleraine, County Londonderry on Thursday.
A police officer said the boy was detained when he met an "operative" at the retail park.
The court heard that the accused tried to give the operative 150 to pay for the ammunition and that he believed he could further purchase the gun.
It also heard that the defendant told the operative that "his intention was to intimidate a third party".
Image copyright Google Image caption Police said the boy was arrested at Riverside Retail Park in Coleraine on Thursday
The police officer told the court that during an interview with police, the boy provided a pre-prepared statement naming a Jamaican man who he said had asked him to collect blank ammunition and a deactivated gun.
The officer said the accused told police he was to collect the deactivated gun in a few days.
She added: "It was in fact a live gun and ammunition."
The officer said the police opposed bail and alleged the defendant"s only reason for purchasing the gun was to cause serious injury.
She said: "The account provided was somewhat unbelievable.
"He provided an account that he was purchasing a gun for a male that was a Jamaican national living in Northern Ireland who he was friendly with on Facebook."
She said none of his friends on Facebook matched the name given for the 40-year-old friend.
The officer said if the child was released he could destroy evidence by deleting any conversations he may have had online.
However, the accused"s lawyer said there was no evidence presented to support what his client"s intent was and described the police"s assertions as "guesswork".
The judge released the defendant on bail of 500 with conditions that he stays at home overnight and does not possess a mobile phone or any other internet-enabled device.
He was also warned that he could spend months in a juvenile justice centre awaiting trial if he broke any of the conditions.
The 14-year-old is due to appear in court again on 25 April.
