If things had transpired differently Bale might have been a regular at the Cardiff City Stadium this season, as he was part of a consortium who tried to buy the Bluebirds.

That interest was dismissed by Cardiff’s owners and Bale insists he is in no rush to commit to a future in or out of football as he enjoys time as a father, as well as doing TV punditry, but says he would “love to explore,” club ownership in the future.

“I knew football wasn’t going to last forever anyway. I enjoy being with family, enjoying that time, keeping in football a little bit by doing some stuff on the TV. My kids keep me very busy,” he added.

“It’s great to now have that time to spend with them and not be away every weekend and missing a lot of them growing up; just being able to go out and be a dad finally. At the moment I’m quite content where I am.”

Bale is not ruling out involvement in football in the future.

“Like I said, if something was to happen with a football club, I would definitely be interested and would love to explore it,” he added.

“I’m still pretty relatively new into retirement, so I’m still enjoying that phase of relaxing a bit, enjoying being around my family a bit more rather than being away every week.

I’m enjoying my kids and watching them grow up because I feel like I missed a lot whilst I was playing.”