Gareth Bale spends two days in Indonesia

Gareth Bale’s elevation to one of world football’s biggest stars further underlined after being treated like Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi in Indonesia.

Real Madrid’s midfielder Gareth Bale wooed hundreds of Indonesian fans on Sunday in a personal promotional tour of Jakarta on the back of his team’s Champions League glory.

Having scored in Real Madrid’s Champions League final success, Bale flew out for a personal post-season promotional tour of Indonesia for the brand Dua Kelinci, who is an official partner of Real Madrid in the region, where he has been treated like royalty.

Fans cheered wildly as the Welshman kicked a ball from a stage into a crowd of around 1,000 at the massive Gelora Bung Karno sports stadium in the Indonesian capital.

He thanked the crowd for turning out and said it was “an honour to be invited” to the event, which included a football coaching clinic for young people.

“Hopefully a lot of young people in the crowd here today can work hard, practise football and be a professional one day,” he said.

Bale’s lucrative Jakarta appearance is further evidence that he is moving on to a similar level to La Liga’s two other box-office stars, both on and off the pitch. With Ronaldo and Messi having to go away on World Cup duty, Welshman Bale will be the face of world football in Indonesia this summer.

The event was largely followed and even present in the cover of some of Spain’s most important newspapers.