Former world No. 1 tennis player Carlos Moyá earned $13,443,970 in career prize money according to official ATP records, a figure that highlights the stark contrast between athletic earnings and the tax liabilities athletes face in Spain, SPORT reported.
Speaking at an event organized by investor and former tennis player Pedro Escudero, Moyá detailed how high-earning sports figures manage wealth preservation. The 1998 French Open champion explained that a tennis player generating ten million euros annually could surrender more than half of that revenue to Spanish taxes once team expenses, coaching staffs, and marketing operations are accounted for as corporate expenditures.
Un tenista que genere, por ejemplo, diez millones de euros al año, podría pagar más de la mitad en España, incluyendo sus gastos de equipo, entrenadores y marketing, que se gestionan como una empresa,
Moyá stated during the session covered by Palco 23.
Cross-Border Financial Planning in the United States
To protect capital accumulated across a professional career that also featured coaching Rafael Nadal from November 2016 until Nadal’s retirement in November 2024, Moyá chose to move his financial oversight abroad. He confiado en alguien en Estados Unidos que gestiona mi patrimonio,
Moyá said, emphasizing that athletes require professional guidance from the outset of their careers.
Moyá pointed to current young stars like Carlos Alcaraz as examples of competitors who must prioritize long-term asset structuring early on. According to the former Davis Cup captain, building a reliable team of financial advisors is just as critical as training on the court.
Long-Term Investment Projections Versus Immediate Tax Burdens
To illustrate the growth potential of disciplined saving, Escudero presented contrasting investment models during the panel discussion. If a tennis player successfully saves ten million euros and reinvests those funds at a 5 percent return over a 25-year span, the total accumulated capital reaches 33 million euros. Under a more aggressive 15 percent return scenario over 30 years, that initial sum scales to 660 million euros.
These projections highlight the financial divergence between athletes who establish strong international wealth management structures early and those who leave their earnings exposed to high domestic tax rates without specialized corporate planning.
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