Gareth Bale has poured cold water on suggestions he could come out of retirement and sign for Wrexham.
The Wales legend announced the end of his playing career earlier this year after playing in the Qatar World Cup. However, he was sent a plea by Wrexham co-owner Rob McElhenney to return for one more season after their promotion back to the Football League.
Ryan Reynolds has also weighed in by suggesting he'd go to extreme lengths to try and make it happen, before posting a picture of Bale mocked up in a Wrexham shirt to his millions of followers on social media.
However, Bale was asked whether he will come out of retirement to play for Wrexham when receiving an award at the Sports Industry awards in London and replied: "No, I don’t think so."
Wrexham sealed the National League title on Saturday with a 3-1 win over Boreham Wood earlier this month. Bale was one of a host of huge names to send his congratulations.
Ryan Reynolds mispronounces name of new Wrexham signing in hilarious videoBale, 33, who retired following Wales’ group stage exit at last year’s World Cup in Qatar, sent McElhenney a personal message which the actor posted to Twitter.
“Hi Rob, just want to congratulate you on your promotion and everything you’re doing at Wrexham,” the former LAFC star said. Bale’s message was well received by McElhenney. The Always Sunny actor invited the retired football star to play a round of golf with him, where he has jokingly suggested he will try and convince him to join the Wrexham revolution.
“Hey @GarethBale11 let’s play golf, where I totally won’t spend 4 hours trying to convince you to un-retire for one last magical season,” McElhenney said on Twitter.
Reynolds later replied to Bale stating: “I will shave a professional-grade golf course into Rob’s back if you’ll give Wrexham a season" before adding: “Update: after an online image search, it appears Rob does not have the requisite body hair to support this plan.”
Wrexham already tempted Ben Foster out of retirement to get them over the line as their promotion race with Notts County went down to the wire. Another Wales Euro 2016 hero, Hal Robson-Kanu, has also offered to come out of retirement to play for the club.
However, it appears Bale will not be joining them - despite pleas from their Hollywood owners.