MADRID, 13 Nov. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Rafa Nadal Academy by Movistar, the Spanish tennis player’s high-performance academy, will take a leap in its international expansion with the help of the GPF group, which becomes part of the shareholders to, with Carlos Costa as the new director of international development, promote the center beyond Manacor and Mallorca.
“Rafa Nadal takes a definitive step in his commitment to promoting values in sport and education in young people and adults around the world and accelerates his international expansion plans by bringing GPF into the shareholding, which shares the values promoted in the Rafa Nadal Academy in addition to a great cultural and generational identity with Rafa Nadal,” the academy explained in a statement.
As part of the agreement between Rafa Nadal and GPF, the international department has been reinforced with the appointment of Carlos Costa as director of international development, a division that will have the support of people who have been key in the development and consolidation of the Manacor Academy , like Toni Nadal and Maribel Nadal (deputy general director).
“For many years we have worked to consolidate the academy in Mallorca and begin to be in different parts of the world. I am personally very satisfied with everything we have been doing so far and that is why I am especially excited to start this exciting stage of international expansion of the hand of GPF, who shares our values, vision and enthusiasm. I am convinced that this association will be a success that will help us accelerate the growth of the group,” said Rafa Nadal.
“At GPF we are firmly committed to investing in education and sports as fundamental pillars of society, and no project brings them together better than the Rafa Nadal Academy. We are very excited to partner with Rafa to work together with his entire team to accelerate international expansion of the group,” commented the founding partner of GPF, Martín Rodríguez-Fraile.
GPF is a private equity investment firm, founded in 2015 by Martín Rodríguez-Fraile, Ignacio Olascoaga, Lorenzo Martínez de Albornoz and Guillermo Castellanos. It has more than 1,200 million euros of capital under management among several funds, participated by private investors from Spain, the US, Europe and 13 Latin American countries.
The Rafa Nadal Academy started in 2016 and since then it has been growing until it currently has, after the last and recent expansion phase, more than 500 employees and more than 100,000 annual visitors in its 80,000 square meters of educational and sports facilities.
Almost 4,000 young people stay there each year, in a residence with 95 rooms and 10 apartments for the more than 10,000 adults each year who opt for immersion in tennis training programs and an international school, with more than 450 students from 45 years of age. nationalities between 3 years and 18 years of age.
The sports facilities consist of 45 tennis courts (indoor and outdoor), 16 paddle tennis courts, 1 soccer field, 3 swimming pools, fitness center, spa and a sports clinic that is managed by QuirónSalud to guarantee a good medical monitoring of the thousands of players who pass through its facilities.
Additionally, the Academy houses the Rafa Nadal Museum which contains, in addition to a leisure area with numerous interactive activities, an exhibition with some of the most important trophies of Rafa Nadal’s career as well as numerous iconic objects donated by great international legends from other countries. sports.