Rafael Nadal, the renowned tennis champion, established a tennis academy in 2016, intending to nurture emerging talent on the tour. While financial gain may not have been his primary motivation, the venture has proven to be quite lucrative.

According to Euroweeklynews, the Spaniard recently sold approximately 45% of his Manacor-based academy to an investment group called GPF. This transaction has reportedly netted Nadal a substantial profit of $103 million.

The former World No. 1’s business endeavors extend beyond the academy, as he continues to expand his portfolio through his holding company, Aspemir. Although Nadal has sold a significant portion of the academy, he will retain part ownership, while GPF will now control approximately 45% of the academy’s assets.

Rafael Nadal’s tennis academy’s success at a glance

The Nadal Tennis Academy might not be that famous overall, but it’s an institution that has contributed quite a bit to tennis in its short existence. The idea for this Academy was conceived about a decade ago, with its completion happening in October of 2016.

It’s a modern tennis academy comprising 23 hard courts, of which 19 are outdoors and four are indoors. It also has 20 clay courts, of which 13 are outdoors and 7 are semi-indoors. It also features a sports medicine facility as well as an international school, and it hosts a challenger event as well.

The Academy has mostly been run by Rafael Nadal’s uncle Toni, with former player Carlos Moya having served as the technical director. It’s a popular place for many tennis players to prepare for events, as players like Iga Swiatek, Venus Williams, and Rafael Nadal himself used it for prepping for tournaments.

It also saw quite a few talented players come through the academy and become really good players, including Casper Ruud, who played in three Grand Slam finals, and Jaume Munar, another top 100-ranked player, most recently in the news for defeating Ben Shelton at the ongoing Dallas Open.

Abdullah Shelbyah, Alina Korneeva, Alex Eala, and Martin Landaluce are all talented youngsters who attended this academy and became professional tennis players.

In 2020, Rafael Nadal opened another academy in Kuwait in the Sheikh Jaber Al-Abdullah Al-Jaber International Tennis Complex, though the transaction in question is only related to the flagship academy in Mallorca.

The 22-time Grand Slam winner also obliged himself to build an academy in Saudi Arabia as part of his exclusivity deal with the Saudi Tennis Federation in becoming their tennis ambassador.