Gareth Bale is in negotiations with Real Madrid over a new long-term contract that stands to put him in the same pay bracket as Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi. The 27-year-old forward has three years to run on his deal, which is reportedly worth £300,000 a week, but Real want to tie him down, effectively, for the remainder of his top-level career.

One of the details still to be finalised is the value of his buyout clause. It will be astronomical, and a figure of €500m (£427m) has been discussed. Such clauses are common in Spanish football and, according to the Real president, Florentino Pérez, Ronaldo’s is worth €1bn. “In the case of Cristiano, it’s €1,000m,” Pérez told Cadena Cope radio station last year.

The Bale contract talks have been protracted and complicated, which is not surprising, given that they involve nine-figure sums. The structure of the contract and the legal small print have led to plenty of back-and-forth.

However, there is the will on both sides to reach a resolution, with Real prepared to reflect Bale’s standing in the game with the financial terms of the offer. They consider him to be prominent in the band of players vying to get close to Ronaldo and Messi – who are commonly acknowledged to be the world’s best. Ronaldo is 31 and Bale, who is in line for a massive hike to his salary, has been tipped to succeed him as the face of Real.

Bale signed from Tottenham Hotspur in 2013 for a then world-record fee of €100m and is loving his time at Real. He has no desire to go anywhere else, despite plenty of interest, including from the Premier League. Bale sees himself at Real for at least the next six or seven years. Since his move to the Bernabéu, he has won the Champions League twice, together with the Copa del Rey, the Club World Cup and the Uefa Super Cup.