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Wales not jealous of 'Tarzan' Gareth Bale's Real Madrid wage - Joe Ledley

Wales midfielder Joe Ledley has said there is "no jealousy" of Gareth Bale despite the Real Madrid star recently signing a lucrative contract with his club.

Last month, Bale, 27, signed a new six-year contract at Real, reportedly making him one of the highest-paid footballers in the world.

Ledley, who plays for Crystal Palace, said in The Guardian: "He deserves every penny and whatever he gets in life.

"He's proven to be one of the greatest players on this planet. There is no jealousy whatsoever. We have known Gareth since he was a boy at Southampton and I haven't seen any change in him at all -- that is brilliant on his behalf.

"People can change in football and go different ways but he has just stayed on that straight and narrow line and remained the same person.

"He's just one of the boys -- we don't care who he is, we will still hammer him and he will hammer us. That's the banter we have here. If you ask him, he loves meeting up with Wales and that is the togetherness we have in this squad. It doesn't matter who anybody is.

"We are all together as a team and you can't treat anybody different to anybody else. We are all equal."

Ledley said they joke about Bale's "barnet," in particular during last month's 1-1 draw against Georgia.

He said: "We saw that [when his bun collapsed and his hair fell down], we had him a bit for that. He looked like Tarzan," Ledley said.

"There's a lot of banter going on around the place. We play golf together and, if he duffs one, then we are on his back because he's pretty good at golf. That's depressing, actually -- I don't know what he's not good at."

Wales, who are third in Group D, are in action on Saturday when they travel to Serbia in World Cup qualifying.