Real Madrid soccer star Gareth Bale may well be heading for the exit door from Spanish soccer giants Real Madrid this summer, but Adidas who act as one of the players main sponsors, have said they won't be interfering in any deal.
CEO of the German sportswear brand Kasper Rorsted exclusively told CNBC that despite Adidas representing Bale, as well as making soccer uniforms for Real Madrid and one of his reported destinations of Bayern Munich, any transfer will be completely left to the clubs.
"While we're the sponsor of Real Madrid and Bayern Munich, we have a very clear policy that we don't interfere with transfers between the clubs, because frankly we couldn't really operate in that environment," Rorsted said to CNBC's "Squawk Box Europe" on Thursday.
Welsh international Bale has fallen out of favor at Real Madrid since the return of former coach Zinedine Zidane to the club in March who subsequently told Bale he can leave.
A move to the Chinese Super League, where Bale would have been paid $1 million per week to play fell through earlier this month, leaving Bale's options limited because of his high wages.
It has been reported that in 2016 Bale extended his Madrid contract, granting him a pay packet of £350,000 ($424,000) a week.
A return to former club Tottenham or Manchester United won't be possible either, because English Premier League clubs can no longer sign players for the rest of the year after August 8, 2019. The transfer window for the rest of Europe's top leagues remains open until September 2.
Bale has won the Champions League, European soccer's top club competition four times since his world record $100 million move to Real Madrid in 2013 and has scored three crucial goals in two of those finals.
Adidas has previously used Bale's status as one of the world's most recognizable and bankable soccer stars to launch its products and has enlisted him to be the first to wear a number of its new soccer boots.
Even though Rorsted said Adidas will be taking a back seat on any potential move for Bale, he did confirm to CNBC that they are actively interested in where their contracted stars end up this summer.
"We've already seen Matthijs de Ligt going to Juventus from Ajax so that was two Adidas clubs, but we don't interfere with that. We look upon it with the same excitement as you." added Rorsted.
However, it's still not wholly unprecedented for Adidas to place itself in the middle of a deal. In August 2016 when another of the high-profile players attached to Adidas, Paul Pogba announced through the brand's social media channels that he was moving back to Manchester United from Juventus. On that occasion both of those teams involved in the deal had their soccer kits manufactured by Adidas.
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