Rafael Nadal in line to be next president of Real Madrid after Florentino Perez: Reports

Spanish tennis legend Rafael Nadal could become the next Real Madrid CF president, according to the latest reports from Spain.

Even though he was born in Mallorca, where he often still resides, Rafael Nadal has always been open about being a fan of Real Madrid. He even attends matches on the regular at their home stadium.

Recently, rumors about current Real Madrid president Florentino Perez leaving his post began circulating. It is now being reported that Nadal, a 22-time tennis Grand Slam champion, might be his successor.

Real Madrid have denied the rumors about Perez leaving, but Mundo Deportivo claims that Perez's plan is to quit after the remodeling of the Santiago Bernabéu stadium is complete. Once the work on the stadium is finished, the 15th president of Real Madrid will reportedly look for the best candidate to replace him.

It wasn't Mundo Deportivo, who reported about Perez's decision to leave, that claimed Rafael Nadal might replace him. Instead, it was another Spanish outlet, Sport.

According to Sport, the idea is to put together a new presidential structure for when Perez steps aside, with the new president being a person "with more representative character than executive."

Sport further reports that while Perez's dream is to put Nadal in the presidential chair, if that doesn't come to fruition, Emilio Butragueno - the current director of institutional relations of the club - would take over the 'white throne.'

It is also possible that both Nadal and Butragueno take over Real Madrid CF, with the tennis great having "a more honorary position" instead of dedicating himself to executive work, which Butragueno would take over.

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"Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, and Roger Federer messed up everybody's expectation of what is normal" - Milos Raonic

Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, and Novak Djokovic at the 2022 Laver Cup 2022

Canadian tennis player Milos Raonic recently compared the ATP Tour as it is now to what it was in the past decades when the Big-3 of Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, and Roger Federer were dominating.

The Big 3 dominated tennis for two decades and have 65 Grand Slams between them, with Djokovic leading the way with 23. They have also ruled the roost when it comes to the Masters 1000 series titles as well as the World No. 1 spot in the ATP rankings.

"I think just three guys, to have three exemplary kind of legendary athletes in one sport, not even in one generation, period, but in one sport at the same time, you kind of mess up with everybody's expectation of what is normal," Raonic said in a recent interview.

The 32-year-old from Podgorica also thinks that the Big 3 changed the way tennis is viewed by fans.

"I think three guys just messed with everybody's expectations for a long time," he said. "In sport, and just in a lot of things, we have a very short-term memory, and I’m guilty of that as well. Tennis was quite different before Roger came around."