MADRID: Tennis great and longtime Real Madrid fan Rafael Nadal has accepted an offer to join the club’s board of directors, adding a role at his beloved football club to his retirement plans two years after leaving the tour.
“I want to thank president Florentino Pérez and the board,” Nadal said on social media, alongside a childhood photo of himself wearing a full Madrid kit. “I have accepted this proposal with great excitement, a desire to learn, and a willingness to contribute everything I can.”
Real Madrid, the record 15-time European champion, said its board had “agreed to submit to the general assembly of delegate members the ratification of the appointment of Rafael Nadal Parera, member number 67,778 of our club, as a new member of the board of directors”.
“For Real Madrid and for all madridistas, it is an immense honor that a figure of his sporting and human stature, a reference in Spanish and global sports, joins our board of directors and contributes, from this role, to the present and future of our club,” the club added.
Nadal won 22 Grand Slam titles and a record 14 French Open trophies during his tennis career.
He supports Real Madrid even though his uncle, Nadal, played for rival Barcelona.
In an interview with The Associated Press this week, Nadal discussed fatherhood, making plans with his former rival Roger Federer and playing an upcoming exhibition in Las Vegas.
Nadal said he is rarely at home even in retirement because “I am traveling, I am doing stuff, I have events.”
