Rafael Nadal He is synonymous with tennis and left an incredible mark on the sport throughout his career. Five-time winner of the Davis Cup, gold medal in Beijing 2008 and champion of 21 Grand Slams, he began to be interested in the sport from a very young age that changed his life completely and took him to the top of the world. However, he came close to following a completely different discipline that would have changed his entire life.
So that Rafael Nadal To become the King of the Clay Court, he had to travel a long path that began at a young age. At only three years old he was given his first racket in his favorite colors. His paternal uncle, Toni, who was a tennis instructor, was the one who gave him the present and was in charge of training the future star. It should be noted that he was the Gladidador coach from that precise moment until 2018. However, it was not the only sport that interested him. Rafa also played soccer thanks to another of his uncles.
Miguel Ángel, paternal uncle, was a professional player who wore the Barcelona shirt and joined the Spanish National Team. He instilled a love of football in Rafael Nadal and Toni assured that he could have been a great striker with a lot of goals. However, the fundamental piece that led him to choose tennis was his father, Sebastián Nadal, since he did not agree with his child paying more attention to his extracurricular activities than to school. For that reason, he gave her a choice and the rest is history.
“Rafa could have been an extraordinary attacker who could score goals. He has a capacity for attention that is decisive. When he played he did very well. It was an interior that reached the center forward position,” revealed the former coach of the King of the Clay Court in dialogue with Infobae. Along the same lines, he pointed out that the historic Spanish tennis player had become his team’s top scorer.
His uncle was fundamental: Tony’s teaching that lasted in Rafael Nadal
In an interview for “El Hormiguero”, Toni Nadal revealed that he had to work on Rafa’s discipline and attention and that managed to mark the personality of the established tennis player. The uncle and former coach said that Nadal forgot the bottle with which he refreshed himself during practice and took advantage of that situation to teach him about causes and consequences.
Source: (Antena 3)
“If you forgot the water, you didn’t drink it that day. Nobody is going to die because they can’t cool off. They are educational methods that mark the personality. Adversity is difficult, and the idea is that one does not get used to everything going well; because if you have everything taken care of in the long run, you pay dearly. Each cause has its effect, because talent is built in calm, but character is built in the storm,” he explained.
