{"id":294189,"date":"2026-02-16T14:43:17","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T14:43:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/294189\/"},"modified":"2026-02-16T14:43:17","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T14:43:17","slug":"how-carlo-ancelotti-responded-when-rafael-nadal-said-he-wanted-to-be-real-madrid-president-in-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/294189\/","title":{"rendered":"How Carlo Ancelotti responded when Rafael Nadal said he wanted to be Real Madrid president in 2023"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Rafael Nadal is one of the greatest tennis players of all time, but has seldom restricted himself to just one sport.<\/p>\n<p>Naturally, he gave the best physical years of his life to tennis, but always managed to find time for golf and football where possible.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>The latter has always been a long-term passion of his, as one of Real Madrid\u2019s most famous supporters.<\/p>\n<p>And, in 2023, just a year before he retired, the Spaniard spoke about his desire to one day be the club\u2019s president.<\/p>\n<p>When Rafael Nadal said he wanted to be Real Madrid\u2019s president<\/p>\n<p>First speaking to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.marca.com\/en\/football\/real-madrid\/2017\/02\/07\/589a383f468aeb90108b4668.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:MARCA;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">MARCA<\/a> in 2017, the 39-year-old was insistent that, whilst he would take the opportunity in a heartbeat, they were not in need of his services given the success enjoyed under Florentino Perez\u2019s current rule.<\/p>\n<p>Nadal claimed: \u201cOf course I\u2019d like to be Real Madrid president. You never know what\u2019ll happen in the future.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Photo by Dominique Ma\u00eetre\/Penske Media via Getty Images\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"800\" height=\"532\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"standard-img\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1b2371a8116e38f5a479a1039861b226.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Photo by Dominique Ma\u00eetre\/Penske Media via Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnyhow, we have a great president now and I don\u2019t think Real Madrid will need me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Echoing that same sentiment with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/samleveridge\/2025\/11\/27\/tennis-star-rafa-nadal-opens-up-on-potential-real-madrid-presidency\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Forbes;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Forbes<\/a> just last year, he also added that the timing would have to be right for him to ever consider taking over from \u2018the best man for the job\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>The 22-time Grand Slam champion concluded by stating: \u201cI don\u2019t know\u2026 conceptually, it must be a beautiful position to have. If I were to consider it, I would have to do so when I\u2019m ready, part of me would like to be in a position where I could consider it, but I don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Carlo Ancelotti shut down Rafael Nadal\u2019s Real Madrid presidency claim<\/p>\n<p>Naturally, if such a switch were to occur, this would be one of the most sensational stories in sporting history.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>After all, it would see one of tennis\u2019 best-ever players join forces with arguably the biggest club in football.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Photo by Diego Souto\/Getty Images\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"800\" height=\"534\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"standard-img\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/f81f61dbc03adf3fa12c84ed3c20c735.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Photo by Diego Souto\/Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>However, when Carlo Ancelotti heard the rumours back in 2023, he was not convinced.<\/p>\n<p>The Italian, who has coached the club for six years across two different spells, admitted: \u201cAll the time I\u2019ve been here I\u2019ve had a president who is Florentino P\u00e9rez, who is doing a fantastic job and who is the best possible president for Real Madrid.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re very proud to have Rafa Nadal. I have total admiration for him as a sportsman; we\u2019re proud he is a true Madridista.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rafael Nadal is one of the greatest tennis players of all time, but has seldom restricted himself to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":294190,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[125533,85,46,4525,22398,4029,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-294189","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-carlo-ancelotti","9":"tag-il","10":"tag-israel","11":"tag-president","12":"tag-rafael-nadal","13":"tag-real-madrid","14":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=294189"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294189\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/294190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=294189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=294189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=294189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}