Gareth Bale prepared to 'fight' for his place at Real Madrid amid Kylian Mbappe transfer reports

Speculation has been rife all summer that Manchester United will move for the 28-year-old, but the Welshman has no intention of leaving the Bernabeu

Gareth Bale looks to be staying put at Real Madrid this summer (Getty)

Gareth Bale says he is prepared to fight Kylian Mbappe or anyone else for his Real Madrid place, and that the opportunity to make history and win even more Champions League titles at the Spanish club is too good to pass up.

Speculation has been rife all summer that Manchester United will move for the 28-year-old and, even though Jose Mourinho stated on Tuesday night that it is “game over” for the signing after Zinedine Zidane selected Bale for the Super Cup starting XI, the feeling has persisted that the European champions will look to sell him if they get Mbappe.

The Welsh star is determined to compete for a starting spot, though, as he revelled in winning yet another trophy with the Spanish club by lifting the Super Cup.

“I feel like I’m happy to fight for my place,” Bale said in the mixed zone in Skopje. “We’re all fighting for our places anyway. It’s nothing new in football. It happens at every club, you just carry on like normal.

“We’re enjoying winning, enjoying winning trophies, like everyone would, so for us, we’re hungry to win everything, so we just carry on like that.”

When it was put to Bale that he could help make it a record three Champions Leagues in a row for Real and the fourth in his time at the club, he said: “For any football you want to win as many trophies as you can, so that’s the main thing.”

Such talk further explains Mourinho’s pessimism about the move, since United believe that it is down to Bale to actively push for an exit from Real for anything to actually happen.

If it now looks highly unlikely that Bale will go to Old Trafford, he was at least full of praise for the Premier League side and their manager after Real beat them 2-1.

“They did very well, they gave us a difficult game today, and I'm sure they'll do fantastic this season.

United's only chance of signing Bale Real is if Madrid decide they don't want him (Getty)

“I think it's getting there, obviously I think by bringing Mourinho in, it's kind of boosted the club, by winning a few trophies last year, it did them great, and I think they're getting back to where they belong.

“I see no reason why [they can’t be a force in the Champions League], he's a great manager, he's done everything in football, he knows what he's doing and I'm sure he's building a great team for what he hopes to achieve there.”