Rafa Nadal, the social and political icon who does have 'enemies' off the track

"Winning or losing is of minimal importance today. I live in my reality, which is tennis, but never forgetting that

, the

, the

, whatever, is in the background. In this world we are all in a more important battle for health and to recover the economy of so many people who are suffering. It is even ugly to speak more than the account of a tournament. Athletes serve to entertain people and distract them from the problems that and

They are living, that is our obligation, to create the best possible show, and that's it. "Last Friday, minutes after qualifying for their thirteenth final of

where would it take

his thirteenth title

, Rafa Nadal underlined the biggest career change.

Beyond his tennis, that is, the direction of his strokes or his position on the court, the already 20-time winner of a

he rose again as a benchmark, a committed athlete.

Over the years, while celebrating titles in the

, that impetuous young man in sleeveless shirts became an icon capable of celebrating deeply, as he did the day before yesterday, and of remembering the victims of the

before anything else. That was not an empty gesture.

Beyond collaborations with NGOs, such as its recent campaign with

by

, something common for other athletes, Nadal has distinguished himself in recent years for his ability to address social and political issues and, most difficult, to do it his own way. "I have been in many countries, in countries that we consider superior, and I can assure you that they are very far from us. We have a welfare state that we must continue to push. To maintain it, solidarity has to grow, avoid that some have a lot and others very little. We need a powerful middle class, as broad as possible. the countries where there are people who live very well and people who live very badly are where problems of crime, insecurity appear, quite the opposite of the welfare state, "he commented during a

interview with EL MUNDO

at the end of 2019 in a speech that is difficult to pigeonhole.

Among his themes, his undoubted patriotism, the defense of public services and concern for the economy, always open to making life easier for businessmen, far from the majority of the players of the

that usually explicitly support the

American to promote racial equality,

he has always tried to distance himself from political noise, although he has not always succeeded.

A few months ago, she chatted with him

in a video conference with

Y

-a political act in these times- and criticized the management of the

by the Government of

.

A few months before, the Popular Party mounted the #YoconRafa campaign when the mayor of Manacor, Miquel Oliver, from the Mes-Esquerra independence party, accused him of not paying municipal taxes and the tennis player resigned in

: "I neither need nor have any illusions that a campaign will be made to support me." He also spoke clearly after the motion of no confidence that led Moncloa to

, in 2018. He said that the normal thing would be for elections to be called immediately, something that unleashed harsh criticism from

.

Committed businessman

His own maturity, at 34 years old, and among other things his conversion into a businessman in 2016 after opening the Rafa

Nadal Academy

, where its heritage is at stake and it has more than 300 workers, may be the reasons for its ideological exposure, although the trigger was the fervor of autumn 2017 in Catalonia.

An answer that September 11 in another

interview with EL MUNDO

right after winning his third US Open he cemented his step forward from tennis to other issues. "I don't understand a Spain without

Catalonia

.

I understand that together we should be able to understand each other, without any doubt, and I believe that an effort has to be made to reach an understanding because I believe that we are, without any doubt, stronger together than apart;

both Spain is better with Catalonia and

Catalonia

is better with

Spain

, from my point of view.

I think that October 1 shouldn't happen because, from my point of view, everyone has to respect the laws and there are laws that are what they are and you can't break the laws because you want to break them.

I cannot skip a red light because that light does not seem correct to me.

And those who want that in Catalonia have to understand it. "After those words that opened his speech, many others arrived and so the day before yesterday, just after defeating

Novak Djokovic

in his thirteenth Roland Garros final, as he would do a few days earlier when qualifying for it,

Nadal

he rose again as a reference, a committed athlete: "I want to send a message to the whole world in the face of this bad moment that we are going through. We will come out of this, a lot of encouragement to those who are suffering."

To continue reading for free

Sign inSign up

Or

and you will have access to all the web content of El Mundo

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more