Gareth Bale's agent has dismissed the chances of his client coming out of retirement to play for Wrexham despite continued public hope from owners Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney.
Although the 33 year-old himself has already played down the chances of one last magical season in professional football, the Hollywood owners aren't backing down from making attempts to convince the former Real Madrid, Tottenham and LAFC winger.
The Red Dragons secured promotion to the Football League for the first time in 15 years last month and have spent the weeks since celebrating and working on comedic ways to involve Bale in their plans for next season. The Welshman started things off, though.
READ MORE: Chelsea can secure $126m windfall that hands Todd Boehly key Joao Felix transfer chance
Following his congratulatory message after the title win, McElhenney jumped at the chance to speak with the five-time Champions League winner. "Hey @GarethBale11 let’s play golf, where I totally won’t spend 4 hours trying to convince you to un-retire," he wrote online.
Bale has since responded, saying: "No I don’t think so. think I was looking more for a free round of golf off Rob. I'm sure we'll have a chat and a joke but I'm quite happy where I am. I'm spending a lot of time with my kids, my wife, time that I've lost so much over the years being committed to football. I'm just enjoying family life and playing some golf."
The pair of film and TV stars weren't taking no for an answer, though, and described their attempts to bring him into League Two as 'serious.' Bale's agent has since added doubt and squashed any remaining hope. "[He] doesn't want to play football anymore," Jonathan Barnett told Sky Sports.
"He's flattered by the offers, but they're all tongue-in-cheek. He's having a great life at the moment and [it is] well-deserved, he's been the best British footballer probably ever.
"He's now having a well-deserved rest. They [Reynolds and McElhenney] haven't actually spoken to me, they may have spoken to Gareth but Gareth doesn't want to play football anymore. He's had a great career and he's enjoyed himself, but he's having a great life now.
"He's with his family which is the most important thing. He's spending a lot of time with his children and that's what he wants to do."
Bale retired in January after the World Cup and cut short his gliterring playing career. He wouldn't even be the first former international and top flight Premier League star to reverse that decision for Wrexham, though. Ben Foster joined as an emergency goalkeeper option and for that reason all hopes are not yet lost.
"I’m also weirdly happy for him to do exactly what he wants to do with his life," Reynolds said to S4C when explaining the situation. “He’s given up so much for a sport that he loves. It’s fun, though. I like that we can kind of do some stuff that’s a little outside the box of convention when it comes to goofing around.
"I didn’t think Ben Foster would be coming over and he did." McElhenney has also tried to keep their hopes alive. "Gareth, okay listen, it's just me and you talking for a second," he said.
"I know that Southern California is beautiful and I know, I'm from Philadelphia and I've lived here for many, many years but you're a young man and you have the rest of your life to live wherever you want," he added, speaking on The Aarthi and Sriram Show.
"If you could just come back from one last year of glory, one last year. I believe your nation, the nation of Wales, could do the right thing. Call me."
Barnett can't imagine Bale following suit, though. "He'd been discussing it for a long time and, for him, it was the right time," he said.
"He's achieved everything he wanted to achieve. He's played for Wales at the highest level, the World Cup, which is what he really wanted to do and I think he knew his body wasn't really up to it anymore. He'd had a hard time with his body the last few years and now he's a different person."
READ NEXT:
Mauricio Pochettino has already told Chelsea 'perfect' $151m Declan Rice transfer outcome
Four Chelsea transfers that prove Todd Boehly can grant Mauricio Pochettino $457m demand
Christian Pulisic transfer can green light cheap $20m Chelsea experiment
Mauricio Pochettino has different Chelsea contract stance to Todd Boehly amid Mason Mount hope
Christian Pulisic set to 'lead' $82m triple Chelsea transfer swap Todd Boehly would love
