Rafa Nadal was in Kuwait in December. His goal was to prepare for the 2021 Mubadala World Tennis Championship, and he did not decide to move to that country by chance. The first franchised tennis complex operating under her name is based there, after consolidating her training project in Manacor. This is the Rafa Nadal Academy, the star project with which the Spanish athlete wants to put to work the more than 125 million dollars (110 million euros) that he has won in prizes throughout his career, according to statistics of ATP itself.

The Spanish tennis player's project began five years ago in his hometown, on the island of Mallorca, to become a benchmark for tennis training worldwide, promote sports tourism on the islands and provide a service to citizens local. In this time, the Rafa Nadal Academy by Movistar has been developing in other areas to house tennis complexes in resorts and open clubs in various parts of the world.

It is a business that has grown steadily year after year since its inauguration, and before the pandemic, in 2019, it already exceeded 21 million euros in annual turnover and generated a net profit of more than two million euros, according to the latest accounts of the company that operates the center, analyzed by 2Playbook.

The academy is the central axis of the project and through which it has structured this entire empire, to which its main sponsors joined from minute one: Telefónica, which has the 'title rights', as well as Santander, KIA, Helicore, Nike , Technogym and Babolat, among others. Located in Manacor, the Rafa Nadal Academy by Movistar is a sports complex that combines tennis and academic training, promotion of sports tourism and provides a service to citizens.

The initial investment was estimated at around 25 million euros, although over the years it has been gaining square meters and occupies more than 76,000 square meters. Center Esportiu Manacor, the company that operates the facilities, received successive injections of capital between 2012 and 2017, until obtaining 11.28 million euros. Four years have already passed.

@payid_orgnoob question. So I get a .crypto address from unstoppable domains to utilize PayID. Do I just add my l… https://t.co/7s3mT62zRT

— Carlos Ray Garcia 👑 Tue Jul 07 17:03:01 +0000 2020

The complex announced a few weeks ago that it would open a new building with three hard-surface indoor courts and seven semi-covered clay courts, as well as a gym and a cryotherapy room. When these works are finished, the academy will have 19 outdoor fast surface tennis courts, 15 outdoor clay courts, four more hard surface courts and seven semi-covered clay courts. In addition, it will have a soccer field, seven outdoor paddle tennis courts, six more 'indoor', one for 'padbol' (discipline that fuses football and paddle tennis), two for squash, a semi-Olympic pool, an outdoor pool free and a center of 'fitness' with 'spa'.

Regarding dual training, the academy has been growing year after year to attract more and more young people and offer them elite tennis preparation combined with studies. In this course, the Rafa Nadal International School has 397 students of 45 different nationalities, who pay around 50,000 euros per course. These remain housed in the academy where, in addition to training, they carry out their Secondary and Baccalaureate studies. In addition to the annual residents of the academy, the compound welcomes visitors for shorter stays and hosts ITF tournaments.

This model, also due to the fact that it bears the name of the Spanish tennis player, is the one that captivated the Tandeem Group real estate company a few years ago to replicate the idea in Kuwait. It is the first international academy, and the objective of the management team, led by Carlos Costa, is to replicate the concept in other large cities such as Shanghai, Dubai or Singapore.

The expansion of the Rafa Nadal project does not end here, since the Spanish tennis player's brand is making a name for itself in various parts of the world with the Rafa Nadal Sports Centre. In this case, the tennis player's brand is expanded through the creation of tennis complexes in hotel resorts.

This practice began in December 2018, reaching the Latin American market in an alliance with the Matutes family to develop a complex in Costa Mujeres, Cancun (Mexico), with the Palladium Hotel Group chain. A year later, they established themselves in the European market with a complex of more than 400 hectares and eight clay courts at the Sani Resort in Halkidiki, Greece. His ambition is to add up and, who knows, maybe get his business after his retirement to generate even more than what the clay gave him.