The strange case of Real Madrid and the invisible tax bill

Zinedine Zidane discussing potentially one of the summer’s biggest transfers before Tuesday’s Super Cup final in Macedonia this week was nothing new – he is after all the Real Madrid manager, the club that revolutionised the market and helped turn it into the feverish, high-stakes modern drama it has become.

But it was a potential departure that Zidane was taking questions on, that of Gareth Bale, another one of those players who, like Zidane, Madrid broke the transfer record to sign. Of the six transfers that have broken the record this century, it has been Madrid who have done four of them: Luis Figo in 2000; Zidane one year later; Cristiano Ronaldo in 2009 and then Bale in 2013. As for when they might do so again, there seemed to be more scepticism in the tone of the questions.