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‘Money Changes Everything’ – Rafael Nadal’s Saudi Arabia Deal Draws a Strong Reaction From Jimmy Connors

Published 02/17/2024, 2:11 AM EST

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Rafael Nadal signed a contract to be the brand ambassador for the Saudi Tennis Federation in mid-January. Tennis fraternity was pretty much shocked with this decision of Nadal’s. Jimmy Connors was another tennis star who found himself astounded at the move. He recently shared his thoughts about the deal.

While the move was astounding, the reason behind his deal was not known to the world. Recently, a piece of information about his academy made fans speculate about the deal. However, Connor has a different theory.

As Jimmy Conors thinks “money changes everything”

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The deal between Rafa and the Public Investment Fund astounded fans as it was estimated to be a mind-boggling $750 million. The deal made everyone speculate about why the two joined hands. In the ‘Advantage Connors’ podcast, Connors talked about how the monetary factor of the deal likely played a big role in finalizing the deal.

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I mean, didn’t Nadal just sign a contract with Saudi? Yeah, you know, money changes everything. Money changes everybody’s thoughts. Everybody’s attitudes, everybody’s wants, you know. Now you can see it’s in sports, it’s in politics and in government, it’s in everything. So what a time to be alive.

He further explained, “You know, to be able to be in a position to, you know, take advantage of that whether that’s your thoughts, whether that’s your beliefs or not, you know, but money changes everything changes the attitudes and the way people think and, you know, their views on things and so forth.

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Connors’ words provide some weight to the recent theory about the reason for the deal. As per Craig Shapiro, Rafa signed the deal willingly because he ran into money problems in a private venture.

Nadal’s academy in trouble

Craig Shapiro, the tennis podcast guru, recently answered a fan’s query on Rafael Nadal’s move to Saudi Arabia for the E1 series on Instagram and revealed some fascinating information. Shapiro responded by explaining that the film dealt with money. He revealed that money set aside for Nadal’s academy became jumbled, resulting in a considerable financial loss.

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The money he received from the deal could help him restart his academy. This shows that Nadal’s recent activities in Saudi Arabia may be an effective strategy to deal with the impact of the debt. Rafa has dealt with a lot of criticism over the deal, and another one was added by Connors. What do you think could be the possible reason behind the deal?

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Written by:

Ripunjay Gaba

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One take at a time

Ripunjay Gaba, a tennis enthusiast-turned-journalist at EssentiallySports, found his way from freelance sports journalism to the publishing house in ES. Here, his writing canvas encompasses the game specifics while finding poetic resonance in covering major sporting events. Ripunjay, a perpetual upgrader, uses avid reading to bring varied flavor to his Tennis reporting.
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Edited by:

Ananya Giri