One day the cell phone Rafael Nadal rang. The tennis player answered and on the other end of the phone was Juan Matji, one of the great Spanish fortunes. ““What would you think about creating a brand of nutritional supplements?” asked the businessman. Nadal didn’t think about it..
A few months after that call, Nadal and Matji walked this Thursday in shirts and jackets through the Madrid Costume Museum between flashes, hugs and friends. It was the presentation of NDL Pro Health, ehe last tentacle of Nadal’s business network that does not allow him to climb the list of the great fortunes of Spain thanks to his investments off the track. “Rafa is a demonstration of entrepreneurship and we are united by the same hobby: creating things”says Juan Matji himself, president of Cantabria Labs.
At 37 years old, the Spaniard is the second tennis player who has won the most money in prizes in the history of tennis. He 22 Grand Slam champion has pocketed almost $135 million since debuting on the circuit in 2001, a figure only surpassed by Serbian Novak Djokovic’s 175 million. To those 135 million we must add everything he has earned from his agreements with sponsors. It is estimated that in recent years It is earning around 23 million euros for being the image of brands such as Nike, Kia, Movistar, Babolat, Banco Santander or Richard Mille.
However, what has made him climb the list of the richest in Spain have been the businesses he has embarked on. Because the dietary supplements brand is just the latest project in a catalog that is beginning to have no end. The former number one has interests in sectors such as sports, tourism, restaurants, real estate and even audiovisuals.
“When you start something you do it because you have enthusiasm. Now I am extremely excited but also cautious, because we are starting a new project.“Nadal pointed out on Thursday during the presentation, one of his few public appearances in his last months due to the injury that has kept him without playing since January.”We are in a sector that is complicated because there is competition“But I believe, as an athlete, and he (Juan Matji) as a specialist in the sector, we have the knowledge needed to have good daily supplementation.”
The 196th fortune of Spain
According to the prestigious list prepared every year by El Mundo about the richest people in Spain, Nadal is ranked 196 in the 2023 edition with assets valued at 295 million euros. A year earlier it was in 249th place with 225 million in the portfolio.
Logically, There is no Spanish athlete above him on the list and the only ones related to the sport that appear are the owner of Villarreal, Juan Roig (28th, with 1,650 million); the president of Real Madrid, Florentino Pérez (55th, with 1,075 million); and the majority shareholder of Atlético de Madrid, Miguel Ángel Gil-Marín (171st, with 340 million).
The Academy, the cornerstone of its future
Definitely, The great project of businessman Rafael Nadal is his academy in Manacor, a mega sports complex that has become in just a few years one of the world’s leading tennis players. The Spaniard inaugurated the academy in October 2016 together with Roger Federer and within the facilities there are dozens of tennis courts, paddle tennis courts, swimming pools, hotel, restaurants, museum, residence…
Located a few kilometers from his home, the academy is where Nadal trains whenever he is not in competition. Toni Nadal, his uncle and his former coach, is the director of a team made up of people with extensive experience in tennis, such as Carlos Moyà or Carlos Costa. The model has been exported to Kuwait, Cancun and Sani, in Greecewhere several academies have opened.
Nadal also knows something about hotels. And not only because he has spent years and years traveling from hotel to hotel around the world. A few years ago he bought two luxury hotels on the Mexican island of Cozumel and in 2023 it presented its first hotel investment in Spain with the Melià chain: the ZEL chain. “Just six months ago we said that we would be opening an average of 20 establishments in the next four years and I believe that we are going to more than achieve that challenge,” Melià CEO Gabriel Escarrer said in June during the presentation.
Tatel restaurants and a historic building in Madrid
Virtually all of its businesses are under the umbrella of Aspemir, a holding company that is the parent company of its investments. Through Aspemir, Nadal owns 33% of Mabel Capital, a company that invests in many sectors and is also controlled by Abel Matutesson of the one who was Minister of Foreign Affairs during the time of José María Aznar, and by the entrepreneur Manuel Campos.
Con Mabel Capital sand launched in 2015 into the world of hospitality with the Tatel restaurant chain. Nadal’s friends also participate in this project, such as Pau Gasol, Cristiano Ronaldo or Enrique Iglesias. There are Tatel restaurants spread all over the world, in cities such as Madrid, Miami, Ibiza, Los Angeles, Doha, Mexico City, Riyadh or Valencia. AND recently opened a new line of Italian restaurants under the Totó brand.
Owner of a team in the new E1 Series, a World Championship for electric boats founded by Alejandro Agag, Nadal also has many investments in the real estate sector through Mabel Capital. According to El País, they have bought buildings in Madrid, Marbella, Portugal and Los Angeles to carry out luxury promotions.
In the Spanish capital, for example, they acquired a 19th century building in one of the most exclusive areas, the Justicia neighborhood. The specific building is on General Castaños Street, right in the Plaza de la Villa de París.where the National Court and the Supreme Court are located, and according to various media the square meter of the homes reached 20,000 euros.
Mabel Capital also has stakes in renewable energy companies and even in Komodo, the audiovisual production company that manages Mad Cool and has produced series such as Soy Georgina or Tamara Falcó: la Marquesa. The Nadal empire does not stop growing.
Nacho Encabo is a sports editor at Relevo, a specialist in tennis and the Olympic Games. Born in Madrid, he studied Journalism and Audiovisual Communication at the Rey Juan Carlos University and began as an intern in the sports section of El Mundo in 2011. Knowing German shortly after opened the doors of the dpa agency, where he worked as a special envoy to the 2012 London Olympic Games and the 2014 Sochi Winter Games, the 2016 Euro Cup in France and the 2018 World Cup in Russia. In addition, adding Relay and the rest of his career, he has covered the four tennis Grand Slams, the Davis Cup , athletics world championships, Formula 1 Grand Prix and countless LaLiga and Champions League matches. He has also worked as a reporter at El Independiente and traveled to the Tokyo Olympics on the Spanish Olympic Committee team. …
Rafael Nadal Florentino Pérez
2023-10-22 10:45:10
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