Bale would have loved to play for Bellamy

Wales great Gareth Bale says he would have relished playing under national team boss Craig Bellamy.

Bale, who retired from football in 2023 as Wales' all-time leading men's goalscorer and having made 111 appearances, says he feels Wales have been revitalised since Bellamy took charge in July 2024.

The former Real Madrid star feels Wales are "right in the mix," for qualification to the 2026 World Cup staged in USA, Canada and Mexico.

North Macedonia, Belgium and Wales are currently separated by one point in group J as they bid for qualification or a play-off berth.

"I played with him, so it would have been great of course, but obviously my time was right to go and I think it was the right time to step aside and not hog the limelight, let the youngsters come through and take the team for the next 10 years," said Bale.

"The campaign so far has been good, there has been a few nervy times, but I think what Craig has done has been great.

"He's come in, he's taken over, he's given that passion back to the team and made it very young and fresh, which I think it needed. I think it's good, we're right in the mix where we want to be. It's difficult to say, we don't expect to always be at the top and running away with things."

Wales face Belgium in their next qualifier next month and Bale, a five-time Champions League winner, is expecting a mouth-watering occasion in Cardiff.

"We have very good teams in the group as well, so I think the main thing with a campaign, you can easily be knocked out of a campaign very quickly and the fact that we're still in the mix, we're right there at the top with the other nations is important," he said.

"It's going to be a big game against Belgium, but I'm sure Craig's going to get the players ready and the fans will definitely be there to cheer them on."

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."