Padel, Cristiano Ronaldo’s new bet

Padel is the new bet of the Portuguese star Cristiano Ronaldowhich is part of a consortium that will develop and build a city dedicated to this sport in Portugal, a complex that will involve an investment of five million euros and that should be completed at the beginning of 2025.

The “City of Paddle”, which will be built in Oeiras, on the outskirts of Lisbon, will be a “reference point and a calling card” for this modality in Portugal and “will contribute to making the path of training and national teams even stronger”, the president of the Portuguese Paddle Federation (FPP), Ricardo Oliveira, explained to EFE.

The Federation announced this week that the project will be built by a company formed by Lusofinança Lda, whose majority shareholder is businessman Filipe de Botton, former representative of Banco Sabadell, and CR7, SA, a company headed by Cristiano.

The involvement of Cristiano and the CR7 brand “adds extraordinary value to national padel”, said the president of the FPP, who hopes “to be able to capitalize on a growing investment by brands in their development.”

Furthermore, he highlighted that Cristiano “It is an example for all” and he can also be a role model for paddle tennis athletes, since, he considered, “There is no more dedicated and committed professional in world sport.”

“And we all know the stratospheric scale of his popularity and the interest generated by all his actions and efforts.”he added.

Even without the influence of the Portuguese star, padel in Portugal “Have a fantastic time”according to Oliveira.

From the 11 clubs and dozens of athletes that existed eleven years ago, there have now been more than 300 teams, some 11,000 federated athletes and more than 250,000 practitioners, according to figures provided by the Federation.

Faced with this exponential growth, the complex “can contribute decisively to the development of sport”given that “will centralize a series of fundamental processes,” said.

Shorten distances with Spain

By promoting this modality in Portugal, the City of Pádel could be a step to shorten distances with Spain.

“It is true that Spanish padel has many years ahead of it, it started decades before us, but we believe that the strengths of this complex can be a step to shorten the distance with those who started the race ahead of us”Oliveira pointed out.

Despite this distance, the president of the Federation highlighted that Portugal is the second nation that has organized the most World Padel Tour tournaments since 2013, only behind its Iberian neighbor, and in terms of athletes’ results it is “the third largest power ”.

“We have been able to do things with little money, with the structure of a young federation, but we are focused on raising funds that allow us to increasingly expand our scope of action and our capacity to support our members, clubs and athletes,” he pointed.

With the City of Pádel, it will be easier “get more and more young athletes to start in this sport, since it is the only way to train champions capable of competing at the highest international level.”

“Despite how much we have already done, we know there is still much to do,” he concluded.

Paddle joins Cristiano’s portfolio

Padel thus joins the long list of investments and ventures that Cristiano Ronaldo has outside the playing fields, such as hotels that bear his name in cities like Madrid and New York, a hair transplant or bottled water clinic, among many others. .

It is estimated that the Portuguese soccer star generates around 200 million euros a year, between club salary, image rights and sponsorships, according to experts consulted by EFE.

Source: EFE