Gareth Bale, currently playing for Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League on a loan contract, has expressed his intentions to go back to Real Madrid after the deal expires.

"It's [future] no distraction for me coming into the Euros. I think the main reason I came to Spurs this year was to play football first and foremost but going into the Euros, I want to be match-fit. The original plan was to do a season at Spurs and after the Euros still have a year left at Real Madrid. My plan is to go back and that's as far I've planned to be honest," said Bale at a news conference on Tuesday ahead of Wales' opening 2022 World Cup qualifier in Belgium.

In 2013, Real Madrid landed Bale from Hotspur, paying a world-record 85 million pounds (about $116.6 million). It's hard to rate his performance at Estadio Santiago Bernabéu. On the one hand, he never lacked highlight performances, including scoring key goals in the UEFA Champions League Final game; on the other hand, however, Bale's attitude was not always professional, not to mention the high tensions between him and Real's manager Zinedine Zidane.

That partly explained why the Spanish giants decided to send Bale to Hotspur on loan after playing 14 games in La Liga in the 2019-20 season. That deal does not include any option or obligation for Hotspur to purchase Bale.

It took Bale a while to find his game back in England. Having played 25 games under Jose Mourinho, he scored 10 goals for the club. Bale doing better and better also helped Hotspur move back to No. 6 on the ranking table. They are now 14-6-9 and three points away from the top 4, which is the Champions League qualification zone. However, the club took a hit when they were knocked out from the UEFA Europa League by Građanski nogometni klub Dinamo Zagreb last week.

"I always think that when things aren't going so well at the club it's nice to get away, especially mentally to get away from the club environment. Definitely it can be a benefit. The first thing we do now is to focus on these couple of games for Wales, which is very important for us, and forget club life," said Bale.

Bale's contract with Real will run out in June 2022.