Rafael Nadal, Spanish sports icon, tennis legend and handy footballer: Rafa is one of us

A sashay in a Marseille corner past a bewildered defender, capped off with a nonchalant left-footed finish past Iker Casillas at the near post.

This is not the work of Lionel Messi in any El Clásico. It is Rafael Nadal, the 22-time Grand Slam champion who retired from tennis last November during the Davis Cup. Nadal scored six goals against Real Madrid legend and Spain captain Casillas in a charity match organized by the Red Cross in 2007, the year before Nadal's first Wimbledon title and the European Men's Championship trophy, which cemented Spain's dominance of world football for the next four years would confirm. in the first of many glorious summers for Nadal and La Roja.

Rafa is part of us, he is part of the history of Spain, Casillas said in an interview with The Athletics.

Tennis is not typically a sport of national pride. The biggest prizes are won individually and the rivalry is reflected in playing styles and psychology rather than geography and geopolitics. But Nadal, the outspoken Madridista from Manacor who dreams of becoming president of Real Madrid and who traveled to South Africa to support his country in the 2010 Men's World Cup final, is perhaps his greatest sporting avatar in one of his most successful eras.

Alejandro Blanco, the president of the Spanish Olympic Committee, who also spoke The Athleticssaid that Nadal is the sportsman who has had the greatest impact throughout history.

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Rafael Nadal's sporting story is a split between two uncles. One is Toni, who coached him on the tennis court from the age of three and let him know that hitting forehands with two hands was not enough. Nadal, a natural right-hander, switched to playing left-handed tennis and the rest is the lasso forehand of history.

But when you watch him send six past Casillas, it's clear he's just as ambidextrous with his feet. It is his other uncle, Miguel Angel Nadal, who played for RCD Mallorca, Barcelona and the Spanish national team, who almost inspired him to play professional football. Instead, in 1998, Nadal won an international under-12 tournament in Auray, France (beating Andy Murray's brother Jamie), and despite a serious case of World Cup fever, decided to devote himself to tennis. The first images of Rafael on television came not on the tennis court, but in the aftermath of a football match, with Miguel Angel hoisting him into the air during a post-match interview while playing for Mallorca.

After Nadal's retirement, Spanish managers in the English Premier League reflected on his proximity to football. West Ham manager Julen Lopetegui, who played alongside Miguel Angel at Barcelona, ​​said he uses Rafael as an inspiration for his players when there are setbacks on the pitch.

Rafael is one of the best examples of what it takes to be the best athlete in the world, he said at a press conference ahead of his team's match against Newcastle United on Monday evening.

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta reiterated his views. Whether you are a tennis fan or not a tennis fan, the way he acts, the way he carries himself, the way he wins, and especially the way he has lost, the way he has dealt with the difficulties in life , is just an inspiration, Arteta said. ahead of Arsenal's 3-0 win over Nottingham Forest on Saturday.

Despite Miguel Angel's journey from Mallorca, where Rafael grew up and learned to play tennis, to Barcelona, ​​his cousin remained true to the ways of his father and the rest of his family in supporting Real Madrid, as did four-time major winner and heir. to Spanish tennis legacy Carlos Alcaraz. He has often spoken of his desire to succeed Florentino Perez as president of Real Madrid at some point during his retirement. Senior sources at Real Madrid, who have enormous respect and appreciation for Nadal, currently view the idea as closer to a dream than reality.

Club affinity does not define Nadal's connection to Spanish football. In addition to supporting Real's city rivals Atletico during their Europa League semi-final against Arsenal in 2018, he accompanied La Roja to the 2010 Men's World Cup final, celebrating the 1-0 extra-time win with a painted face and his hands on the World Cup. trophy next to Casillas. The scorer of the winning goal (and another Barcelona legend, not Real Madrid) told Andres Iniesta The Athletics that Nadal is an example of sporting greatness.

We can only congratulate him on his spectacular career and on the legacy and values ​​he leaves us, Iniesta said.

Jose Manuel Rodriguez Uribes, the Secretary of State for Sports who awarded Nadal the Gran Cruz de la Real Orden del Merito Deportivo (Grand Cross of the Royal Order of Sporting Merits) in 2020, also focused on Nadal's values ​​when asked about his contribution to Spanish. sport.

Rafa Nadal was undoubtedly a hero of flesh and blood, he said The Athletics.

Undoubtedly the best sportsman in our history.

Casillas and Nadal with Princess Letizia of Spain in 2010 (Spanish Royal Press Dept / Getty Images)

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The admiration for Nadal, not only as a sporting great, but also as a Spanish great, partly explains the strength of the feeling after his farewell. Toni Nadal, Carlos Moya, his coach, and David Ferrer, the Spanish Davis Cup captain, have all expressed their dismay at the scale of the Davis Cup presentation. Many of Nadal's rivals, including Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer and Andy Murray, were all absent as Spain lost to the Netherlands in Malaga. Some of them planned to arrive on Friday, when Spain would have played a semi-final.

Very important people were missing, Ferrer said Cope's great play.

The farewell was a bit shabby and poor, Moya said Zero wave.

Davis Cup tournament director Feliciano Lopez, who played alongside Nadal at the 2004 Davis Cup that announced him to the sporting world, preferred to focus on Nadal's choice of the tournament to end his career rather than the nature of the ceremony that marked him played out.

We did our best, he said during a closing press conference.

Nadal's transcendence of tennis could simply mean that a farewell to the Spanish sport will never match the magnitude of his achievements. Ona Carbonell, a friend of Nadal who won two Olympic medals in synchronized swimming and 23 world championship medals in this discipline, considers his importance to the country as a record that far exceeds his record on the court, especially as an individual athlete in a very renowned country. for his team's performance.

Every day that you feel bad, that you are not 100 percent, you have no replacement or backup, she said. The Athletics.

In this regard, Rafa has changed the image of our country's athletes.

Carlos Sainz Sr, two-time world rally champion and four-time Dakar rally winner, and Olympic badminton gold medalist Carolina Marin expressed similar sentiments.

I had no reference points because my sport is unknown and very much a minority sport. For me, Rafa has been a mirror in which I could look at myself because of what he shows on the field, Marin said.

In 2010, after Spain's World Cup victory, Nike wanted to shoot an advertisement. Nadal, Iniesta and basketball player Pau Gasol (who hugged Nadal in the crowd after winning the 2012 French Open) surveyed the country's sporting achievements, from individuals to club teams to the World Cup-winning men's soccer team.

Against a reverberating Spanish guitar, Nadal delivered the final line.

Fight the darkness. Be the light they say we've lost.

Fight the darkness. Be the light they say we've lost.

Nadal embodied this more than Spain could have dreamed. There is never the feeling that Rafa is losing, Blanco said.

Even now.

(Additional reporting: Charlie Eccleshare, Jordan Campbell and Roshane Thomas)

(Top photos: Getty Images; design: Dan Goldfarb)