Rafa Nadal gets on Alejandro Agag's boat of business and clean energy

• Paris The emotion of Rafa Nadal: "You leave your son at home and you already miss him"

• Travel Alejandro Agag's great weekend in Saudi Arabia

Long before becoming the tennis player with the most Grand Slam in history,

(36)

in his town.

There, in Porto Cristo, fishing is a slow ritual, an

nothing to do with the strong emotions of Roland Garros.

Rafa thus forged his

and continues sailing whenever he can to get oxygen from tennis and put water in the middle.

Of course, she no longer goes on her family's boat, nor on

euros, the Beethoven.

Since 2020 he has been dating

or brand new current ship,

with two 1,200 horsepower engines (he ruled out the sailing model) and

of euros.

He has it moored in the yacht club of the port of his childhood, next to the one that is being built

and where the yacht stands out among a swarm of modest boats.

Nadal and Mery Perelló, on the deck of their yacht.

GTRES

The athlete now squeezes that

and surprises the world of sports with a new project.

will be the

the E1 series.

A competition of electric boats capable of reaching 50 knots (93 km/h) that since 2020 plans

(52), son-in-law of the former Spanish president

(69), businessman, guru of new engineering and king of emission-free racing.

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The one that was at the end of the 90s one of the sons-in-law of Spain already launched previously

(Formula E) and a race for

(Extreme E) and has important

such as the powerful Saudi Public Investment Fund, which would have committed

euros in the promotion of the E1.

Agag, who resides in London,

to explain how his idea was born.

I was walking along the River Thames with my friend Rodi Basso -aerospace engineer, formerly of Ferrari and co-founder of the project- and we were talking about electric vehicle racing". Thus, he says, the conversation

and the idea of ​​E1 was born." He keeps the business figures and his financial alliances secret. In his idea, he not only seeks to promote careers but "help

in the nautical sector.

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The project plans to launch

with 12 teams, although at the moment the participants are revealed with a dropper.

"The first race will take place at the end of this year", guarantees Agag, who announces "eight regattas in the Middle East and Europe" although he does not specify any location at the moment and says that

provisional.

"We have received great interest from cities around the world, including several potential locations in the Mediterranean."

Venice, which appears in the promotional video, starts with an advantage.

With the signing of Rafa, A

of a figure outside the motor world but globally known and admired as a standard bearer of the sport.

With him, he spurs his project, which was initially announced for the beginning of this year.

Rafa, in the final stretch of his tennis career

without breaking away from the universe of competition.

for now

the venetian businessman

(29), the Mallorcan tennis player and the Mexican pilot

(32).

"In the car you go very fast but I am from an island and the sea dominates it more," Rafa tells her rival in a promotional video.

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Although this alliance between Agag and the tennis player may be surprising, sources familiar with the athlete's environment in Mallorca indicate that

Like the Ibizan businessman

who was Aznar's minister, who is Rafa's partner in

(such as the luxurious apartments in the Plaza Villa de París in Madrid where Marta Ortega bought), in

(Tatel restaurants in Madrid, Ibiza or Beverly Hills) or in

through her company Mabel Capital.

Los Matutes and Los Aznar are old acquaintances and were already sailing together in Ibiza in the 1990s. Nadal has also recently teamed up with the Melià chain to create a hotel division called Zel.

Agag explains that

"by the ocean" and the alliance with the marine ecologist Carlos Duarte, who was a researcher in Mallorca.

They met at the Nadal Academy in Manacor and the idea caught on.

The promoters of the project announce that the competition includes a program focused on the

and to the promotion of "sustainable" projects in the cities that host the tests.

still unknown

Counting on the Mallorcan's proverbial competitive gene, he will have double the pressure.

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