There are no barriers, no forbidden subjects, with Rafael Nadal. What a pleasure! What an opportunity! He told me we can talk about everything. And how he has talked so much and so much about tennis, about his preparation, about the illusion that made him win, again, in Roland Garros After barely playing three or four games before and, above all, in very complicated climatic and technical conditions, I will tell you if, by chance, you read an interview, in the newspaper ‘El País’, to the Italian Luca de Meo, one of the greatest and most lucid executives in the world, new CEO of the Renault group, after passing through Seat, in which it said that “Spaniards don’t realize how good they are & rdquor;.
I am convinced that you fully share that commendable sentence about the Spanish.
I don’t know if this is exactly the case, what I do know is that we tend to create more tension than anyone else. Although, the truth is, the current situation does not help, because it is very hard and complicated for everyone, unpleasant, sad and it has changed our lives in a very negative way, I hope we return as soon as possible to a happy and positive landscape in every way. I believe that we have a fantastic country and that the Spanish are very nice, sociable and educated.
Do you say it from experience, because you travel a lot?
Look, you get into an elevator in many countries of the world, I will not say which ones, I will not say names, nor is it necessary, and you say good morning and nobody answers you! Here, in Spain, in any corner of Spain, that does not happen. We are really lucky.
But & mldr; I see you intending to add a ‘but’.
But, to this day, without being a very angry criticism, I really think that television is being radicalized and the political class is dividing, in some way, society with so much fighting, discussion, tension and, above all , with so little dialogue, understanding and agreements. They divide us and it’s a real shame.
“Our Foundation tries to create opportunities for those children who neither have them nor will be able to have them and I will not stop helping them”
Quite the opposite of what you and your friend Pau Gasol launched, in collaboration with the Red Cross, as soon as the Covid-19 pandemic broke out, when they raised more than 14 million euros.
It is a matter of personal responsibility, I think we have to set an example. What we can contribute, economically speaking, will have a certain value, yes, but the important thing is that we have the obligation to generate solidarity, open our eyes to others and that each one contributes their grain of sand. Not too much, not too little, whatever you can. I believe that in difficult moments, people who are public, people who have been lucky in this life, we have to set an example and be a little bit the ones who lead the way to help. The only thing that Pau and I wanted, and so many others who helped us (companies included), was to cause that tingle in athletes, artists, businessmen, companies & mldr; to get money for a good cause.
What you, at the hand of your mother, have been doing, exactly now, 10 years, with your Foundation.
The Foundation is fundamental for me and has a single objective: to generate opportunities for children who, really, do not have them and will not have them if life continues its normal course. There are families that have children, who are predestined to have a very hard life because of the place where they were born, because of the humble family to which they belong, because life is like that.
What is your intention and objective?
We try to surround them with a positive environment and sport is, in that sense, a good way to achieve this. I believe that sport is the best ally of education, because it has values such as sacrifice, effort, companionship, solidarity, respect, complicity, obeying, yes, yes, obeying teachers, professors and coaches, who help those children get a good education. We always need money, of course we do! But, as of today, I am in a position to obtain aid and raise that money with all kinds of events and performances. As long as I can, as long as I have the strength, as long as I still have the hook that I have, I’m going to work in that direction because I can, because I feel it deep inside and because I think not doing it would be very unfair. Furthermore, the Foundation will be part of my future, my next life when I leave tennis.
