Gareth Bale’s possible chronic back injury is creating a lot of debate. If it finally turns out to be something serious -something Real Madrid have denied- Los Blancos would miss the 91-million-euro player.
However, in the unlikely scenario that the Welshman’s injury would prevent him from playing football, Los Blancos have covered their options with a multimillion euro insurance deal, according to Spanish website ElConfidencial.com.
The club spends 4.5 million euros a year on full insurance for all their players. That covers any kind of eventuality, both on or away from the football field.
If one of Real’s footballers had to end his career because of a serious injury, the insurance would guarantee Los Merengues would get the transfer money in return. In the case of Bale, that would be 91 million euros.
That happened a few years ago with Ruben de la Red. Real Madrid’s home-grown midfielder was recommended to stop playing football at 25-years-old due to a serious heart ailment. Los Blancos were refunded the six million euros they had paid to Getafe for bringing him back to the Santiago Bernabeu.
This insurance also covers any injury that lasts for more than one month. The last to use it was Marcelo. In his case, Real also received 1,250,688 euros in compensation from FIFA’s player protection program, since the Brazilian got injured in an international game.
At the moment, Real Madrid works with Willis brokers to manage their insurance deals, organising a public tender every two years in order to increase their player’s insurance value.
