The Spanish tennis player Rafa Nadal referred to the possibility of one day being president of Real Madrid, a club of which he is a fan, and acknowledged that he would like that option in addition to affirming that whether or not he is capable of it will tell time.

"If I want to be president of Real Madrid? I don't know. I promise it's not a dream, but I think I would like to. But there are many things. Today we have the best possible president. Afterwards, what you may think today may not be what you may think tomorrow. And after that life takes many turns. You also have to know if you are qualified to do what kind of things," he said.

"I'm realistic with myself, I know my limitations and in that I don't know if I would be able or not, time will tell. Florentino has never asked me, I think you make films. I do not think I meet the requirements to apply, I am an honorary member but that's it," he added in an interview with Movistar Plus.

He also said he would be "happy for French attacker Kylian Mbappé to come to the club: "I'm waiting for Mbappé with open arms, I have no problem with him, the opposite. Happy he came. Of course I like it, it would only be missing. Who doesn't like it? I don't hold a grudge against him for not coming yet. What obligation did he have to come?"

"Madrid is Madrid and they are bigger than any player but Mbappe has no obligation to come to Madrid when the fans want him to come. If he has to come, he will know it first and then those who have to know. We'll see what happens. And if no grudge comes, quite the opposite. Gratitude because surely he will come when he comes, if he comes, he will do it having given up a lot of money, "he added.

As for the analysis of the start of the season of the white team, he said: "At the moment he has won everything, he has started well. We are very much at the beginning of the season. Madrid, from the outset, has had a serious problem and that is that very important pillars of the team have been injured. Still, for now, they're doing well."

"We'll see what happens. Things start one way and can end another, things that don't look good end very well. The magic of sport is that it is unpredictable. Madrid has made a spectacular signing with Bellingham, it has fallen into total grace. I think a striker would do well, I'm not deluded," he added.

"Djokovic has taken ambition to the maximum"

About the face to face he maintains with the Serbian Novak Djokovic for being the tennis player with the most Grand Slams in history and considered that for him it would have been "a bigger frustration" not to get it than for him.

"With 22 Grand Slams you can live frustrated, I think Novak in that sense lives it in a more intense way than I have lived. For him it would have been a greater frustration not to get it. And maybe that's why he's succeeded, he's taken his ambition to the maximum. I have been ambitious but with a healthy ambition that has allowed me to see things with perspective, not to be frustrated, not to get angry more than necessary on the track when things were not going well. It's my way of living it and feeling it. They are also different cultures, each player and each country live things in a different way. I've lived it this way and I'm happy with it," he said.

In that sense, he said: "I don't feel anything when I see him win a Grand Slam, he doesn't change my speech when I'm ahead or behind. I would have liked to be the tennis player with the most Grand Slams in history, without any doubt. This is what sport is all about, trying to be your best. But it hasn't been an obsession, it doesn't frustrate me."

"You can't always be frustrated in life about one thing or another. I can't be frustrated if the one next to me has a better car than mine or a slightly better house. Life is the way it is and everyone does what they can. I'm not frustrated because I think within my means I've done everything possible to make things go as well as possible," he said.

Asked if he had sent a message to Djokovic after the Balkan won the last US Open, he said: "I haven't sent any message to Djokovic out of sheer confusion, because when you win something so important from experience I know it's better to let some time pass before sending it. At first you don't value it so much because you have a thousand messages. I'm going to do it, but I haven't done it yet."

"I have sent them to Carlos Alcaraz when he has won or has been to win. And to the others... I don't have so many friends left in the circuit because I'm from another era. I have rather few left because I am from an older generation. I've spoken to Federer from time to time. He doesn't have his children in my academy, they've come to train one day, but I haven't seen them," he said.

As for his career, he said: "Of course I have been wrong in things, and in many. It would change a lot of things. I have made wrong decisions at the level of protecting my physique at any given time. I haven't played too much, I've played very little for many years, but then people are left with the memory of the beginning. Look at the numbers, for many years I have been one of the least played on the circuit."

"I have missed four and a half years of Grand Slams due to injury in my sports career, a total of fourteen. But that's also what sport is about. I'm not better than Djokovic for playing less, he's been better because he's had a physique or a way of playing that has allowed him to play more than me. I don't drop my rings for recognizing it. I've done what I can and that's it. I can not reproach myself anything because what I have been wrong in has been at the time and thinking about what I thought was best for my career at that time, "he completed.

  • Rafa Nadal
  • Novak Djokovic
  • Real Madrid
  • Mbappe
  • Florentino Perez Rodriguez