Right now Rafael Nadal is healing his injury from the US Open 2018. For the time after the tennis career there is an interesting suggestion: The presidency of the eleven-time Champions League winner Real Madrid.
It was only a few weeks ago that Florentino Perez did not make friends among Spanish football fans. Well, with the exception of the Real Madrid supporters, the contractor’s supporters on the Iberian Peninsula should be manageable anyway – the coup to sign Julen Lopetegui as Zinedine Zidane’s successor, the then still reigning coach of Furia Roja, did not go off very smoothly.
Lopetegui was dishonorably fired a few days before the World Cup in Russia, the Spanish national team retired from the hosts on penalties.
Now Senior Perez has another idea, this time regarding his successor: Rafael Nadal, the world’s first, avowed supporter of the Royal League.
“Rafael Nadal would be a great choice as president of Real Madrid,” Perez told El Confidental last week. “He’s one of Real Madrid’s best ambassadors to the world.”
The fact that the Grandmaster himself would not refuse the post in principle has already been mentioned in discussions with reporters last year. “Talking about it now is of course utopian,” Nadal said at the time. “But if you ask me if I want to be president, I’d say yes, of course.”
Problems may only arise due to the bylaws of the club: Accordingly, only those who can look back on at least 20 years of membership with Real Madrid can hold the highest office. According to media reports, this would not be the case until 2031.
And, like so much Rafael Nadal, one should not completely ignore the family component: Uncle Miguel Angel Nadal played for years with Real’s arch-rivals, FC Barcelona, won the Spanish championship five times with the Catalans and the 1992 European Cup of National Champions.