Yesterday, a new special program by Ana Pastor’s El Objective was broadcast on La Sexta, which had the most famous Spanish tennis player in history as its star guest: Rafa Nadal. The Mallorcan was happy to be able to explain some issues and controversies on national television, as well as to be able to calmly talk about his signing as ambassador of the Saudi Tennis Federation (STF).
“I don’t think Arabia needs me to wash any image (…) There are things that today have to be improved, without a doubt (…) It is a country that is very behind in many things” , expressed the 37-year-old man while making it clear that he will always work under the values ??that he considers “correct” and that, if in a few years he does not see the evolution he expects, he will recognize that he has made a mistake.
At one point in the interview, Pastor asked Nadal about the recent victory of the Spanish Women’s Soccer Team in the World Cup and asked him if female athletes should be paid the same as men. In addition, the journalist was honest with the guest and told him that he seemed uncomfortable discussing the topic of feminism.
”Not at all. What happens is that I’m not a hypocrite and I’m not going to say things that are easy and I don’t think,” the athlete quickly answered. Pastor, in an attempt to know the player’s true opinion, asked him about the investment: “The “Same as with men, opportunities, the same; salaries, the same? No. For what?” Rafa Nadal answered sincerely while focusing his focus on equal opportunities.
The situation began to get tense and Nadal asked the journalist directly what she considers as a feminist: “If you ask me if I am a feminist, tell me what it means: if it means that you have the same opportunities, I am a feminist.” The presenter shared that she has a son and a daughter and that she wants them to have the same opportunities, which caused an unexpected reaction in the guest: “I have a sister, a mother, you know that this term (feminism) is taken to some extremes that ..”
After Ana Pastor stood firm and said that in this conversation the term is not being taken to any extreme, Nadal gave his point of view in more detail: ”In this conversation we talk about logical and normal things, about equality. And equality for me does not lie in giving away, equality lies in that if Serena Williams generates more than me, I want her to earn more than me.’
Nadal reflected on the Atresmedia program about how the sports industry does not provide the same facilities to men as to women, something that seems very bad to him: “The problem for me is the discussion, how a man being a man is more important than being “Of course, from the public sector we must give the same opportunity in infrastructures, beginnings, sponsors.”
”But if you tell me that the 50th in the world has to earn the same as Djokovic, that’s not the case, because in the end we have to say that everyone has to earn the same by decree. “That’s another debate we can have,” he said, much more relaxed.
