{"id":2939,"date":"2026-07-07T12:40:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T12:40:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=2939"},"modified":"2026-07-07T12:40:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T12:40:17","slug":"despite-a-220-million-net-worth-rafael-nadal-says-he-wont-retire-because-he-hates-waking-up-to-no-plans-so-hes-opened-a-chain-of-hotels-instead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=2939","title":{"rendered":"Despite a $220 million net worth, Rafael Nadal says he won\u2019t retire because he hates waking up to no plans\u2014so he\u2019s opened a chain of hotels instead"},"content":{"rendered":"
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After over two decades of competing, the Spaniard wrapped up one of the greatest tennis careers in history\u201422 Grand Slams, a record 14 French Open titles, 209 weeks as world No. 1, and a $220 million net worth\u2014in November 2024. But instead of kicking back, Nadal\u2019s been busy building a hotel empire.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI am not the kind of guy that likes to wake up in the morning and don\u2019t know what to do,\u201d Nadal told CNBC last week. \u201cMy goal was to keep going.\u201d<\/p>\n

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He said that spending time with his family, including his two young children, is important\u2014then added, \u201cbut I like to work.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the same way I built a legacy on the court, now is the moment to build a legacy outside of the court.\u201d<\/p>\n

Inside Rafael Nadal\u2019s post-tennis empire: Hotels and a coaching business he part-sold for $107 million\u00a0<\/h2>\n

Nadal just opened his fourth Zel Hotel in Fuerteventura, a beachfront, adults-only property in the Canary Islands. The 40-year-old explained that after spending most of his dazzling 23-year tennis career living in hotels, creating his own felt like a natural next step.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what I did during half of my life, and I know what I like the most,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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He founded the hospitality brand Zel Hotels in 2022 in partnership with Meli\u00e1 Hotels International. Just one year later, the brand opened its first hotel, ZEL Mallorca, and has since expanded in Costa Brava in Spain and Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And hotels are just one part of his growing business empire. Nadal has been quietly building a post-tennis portfolio that spans hospitality, education, and sports, with most of it managed through his family holding company, Aspemir.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\u201cThis is something that, of course, is a lifetime project for me, very personal, but at the same time, the company has grown over the last couple of years, and we felt that we needed some help to keep growing and to keep expanding,\u201d Nadal added.<\/p>\n

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Before Zel Hotels, he opened the Rafa Nadal Academy in Mallorca in 2016 for elite tennis coaching, which has now grown into a network of tennis academies and sports centers around the world, including in Mexico, Greece, Kuwait, Hong Kong, and the Dominican Republic.<\/p>\n

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In 2025, Nadal sold 44.9% of his academy to the private investment firm GPF Capital. The deal left Nadal with a 55.1% stake, majority control, and around \u20ac94 million ($107 million) in cash.<\/p>\n

Rafael Nadal\u2019s not the only millionaire who resents retirement\u2014Martha Stewart is still working at 84<\/h2>\n

Nadal isn\u2019t the only one who\u2019s struggled to switch off after a career at the top. Roger Federer similarly retired from tennis in 2022 with 20 Grand Slams and immediately got to work. And he\u2019s since made more money from his investments and brand deals than he ever did in prize money. Last year, his estimated 3% stake in Swiss athletic apparel company On made him a billionaire.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Wingstop\u2019s U.K. founder, Tom Grogan, became a multimillionaire by 32 years old after selling a majority stake in the business for around $532 million. But he said that the money didn\u2019t \u201cfill that void\u201d\u2014and actually life without work was \u201cboring,\u201d so he planned to start another venture soon after.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t live life sat on a beach,\u201d he told Fortune<\/em>. \u201cI think we need something to occupy our minds, to challenge ourselves. You need a purpose every day to wake up for, which we don\u2019t have right now.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Martha Stewart, America\u2019s first self-made female billionaire, has been perhaps the most vocal on the topic of retirement\u2014or rather, non-retirement.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cRetirement is not an option,\u201d she bluntly told Fortune<\/em> at 84, while simultaneously launching two new skincare and bedding brands. <\/p>\n

Although she says other people her age spend their days doing puzzles, she\u2019s up at 4 a.m., fitting in brain games and a pilates class, before working on her farm and various business ventures.<\/p>\n

And then there\u2019s Doughlicious founder Kathryn Bricken, who started over again at 50\u2014working 20-hour days and pushing through breast cancer treatment to build her multimillion-dollar cookie dough empire. <\/p>\n

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It\u2019s been 10 years, and while her peers may be thinking about winding down their careers, she still works through every holiday. <\/p>\n

Read more China\u2019s birth rate just hit its lowest point since 1949\u2014and Trip.com cofounder James Liang thinks that\u2019s a threat to innovation<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cBeing a founder is a 24\/7 responsibility,\u201d she told Fortune<\/em>.<\/p>\n

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Despite retiring from a 23-year tennis career with millions in the bank, Rafael Nadal isn’t kicking up his feet\u2014he’s back at work, this time in hotels.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2938,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-careers"],"yoast_head":"\nDespite a $220 million net worth, Rafael Nadal says he won\u2019t retire because he hates waking up to no plans\u2014so he\u2019s opened a chain of hotels instead - Cross Country Moving Team<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=2939\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Despite a $220 million net worth, Rafael Nadal says he won\u2019t retire because he hates waking up to no plans\u2014so he\u2019s opened a chain of hotels instead - 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