Rafa Nadal is not so Spanish when it is his turn to pay

BarcelonaThe award for the recycling of the day has been won by the newspaper Abc, which has dug up old interviews and statements by Rafa Nadal to build a topic clearly intended to chase clicks and spark debate on social media. The headline was as follows: "I am happy to be Spanish, but when the tax bill arrives, I am a little less so". The newspaper begins the report with a very significant fact, which is that according to Forbes magazine, Nadal earned 135 million dollars in cash between 2002 and 2024. It should be noted that this is only one part, and perhaps not the main one, of the Majorcan tennis player's source of income. It is estimated that income from sponsorships multiplies this figure by 3 or 4. And then we arrive at the phrase in question. It corresponds to an interview with the Corriere della Sera from the year 2020, the same one in which he explains that his entire family is pro-Madrid even though some switched to Barça when his uncle, Miquel Àngel Nadal, played there. He did not.

The piece recalls that years ago, specifically in 2012, Nadal declared to TVE that he had his tax residence in Mallorca and that he had always fulfilled his tax obligations: "I have paid many millions, which is what I had to do. It is what is expected of me as a citizen and it is what I have done". That interview took place when it became known that between 2006 and 2012 Nadal had had part of his tax residence in Gipuzkoa, where he paid less. It is curious that someone who boasts of being Spanish decides to pay their taxes to the Basque Treasury, but anyway. Later he moved it back to Mallorca.

The Abc has achieved its goal, since the piece is among the most read on its website and has sparked debate on social media. A win-win for the Abc.