Rafael Nadal has been proposed for a seat on the board of directors of Real Madrid, the club announced, two years after the Spanish great played his final competitive match.

The club branded Nadal “one of the greatest legends in the history of sport and one of the most admired and recognized Spanish athletes in the world.” The board he would join currently has 19 members. Nadal, 40, is already an honorary member and holds membership number 67,778.

Nadal responded quickly with a post on social media. He thanked club president Florentino Pérez and the board for the proposal and made clear he was ready to commit.

“I accepted this proposal with great excitement, eager to learn and contribute everything I can.”

The club’s statement looked well beyond his trophy cabinet. It cited his “talent, his constant drive to improve, his capacity for sacrifice, his competitiveness, his humility, his respect for rivals and teammates, and his commitment to solidarity.” The board added that these values are part of Real Madrid’s identity and that Nadal has upheld them throughout his sporting life, becoming a role model for millions of people around the world.

What happens next. Ratification by the delegated members is expected to be a formality, given Nadal’s standing among Madrid supporters. Reports indicate the vote is viewed that way inside the club. The assembly on November 21 will also handle approval of the president’s management and the club’s accounts, so the appointment will land in a busy session.

A lifelong allegiance. This is not a late romance with the club. When Nadal appeared in “Real Madrid: The White Legend,” the six-part documentary series released on Amazon Prime in February 2022, he spoke openly about a team he has followed since childhood. He called himself a huge football fan and said Real Madrid was his favorite club, the one he supports and loves, and that it is truly part of his life.

The series also brought out his earliest memory of watching Madrid in person, at a match in Mallorca. His uncle, Miguel Ángel Nadal, was playing for the home side, and a young Rafa was due to walk onto the pitch in a Madrid shirt holding Míchel’s hand. He never made it out of the tunnel, he said, because the nerves got the better of him. His uncle later went on to play for Barcelona, but Nadal backed Madrid because his father did.

Closer to the corridors of power. That loyalty has long pulled him toward the club’s leadership. In September 2023 he admitted the idea of one day becoming president appealed to him, while stressing on Movistar Plus that he would have to judge whether he was capable of the job. Ahead of this year’s presidential election, he issued a statement denying reports that linked him to a challenge.

Pérez did not need him. The incumbent won a new four-year term in June, beating Enrique Riquelme in the club’s first contested election in two decades. Nadal’s board appointment now places him inside the institution he has cheered for since boyhood, without a ballot of his own.

The record behind the invitation. Nadal’s playing record needs little repeating, but the numbers still stop people. He won 92 tour-level singles titles, 14 of them at Roland Garros, his favorite hunting ground. He finished five years as year-end world No. 1 and collected two Olympic gold medals, in singles in 2008 and doubles in 2016. He also lifted five Davis Cup titles with Spain.

He said goodbye on home soil. Nadal played his competitive swan song at the 2024 Davis Cup Finals in Málaga, closing a career that gave Spanish sport some of its biggest moments. Two years on, the club is bringing him into its governance rather than simply celebrating his past.

For Madrid’s members, the November 21 assembly is the moment to formalize the appointment. For fans who have watched Nadal’s career from the baseline to the stands, it offers a clear next chapter: a legend who grew up wanting to walk out in a Madrid shirt, now being asked to help run the club.