📍Manacor, Mallorca, Spain
1986 – 2005“Rafael Nadal was born in Manacor, the second city of Mallorca, in June 1986, into a close, sporty family that lived together in the same building in the town centre, grandparents, uncles, aunts and cousins all in and out of one another's apartments. His father, Sebastián, ran a glass and window business, and his mother, Ana María, kept the family together; he has a younger sister, Maribel. Summers were spent in the family's seaside flat in nearby Porto Cristo, fishing, swimming and boating. Two uncles shaped him. Miguel Ángel Nadal was a professional footballer with RCD Mallorca and Barcelona, and Rafa adored football, playing as a striker for local youth teams and supporting Real Madrid. His other uncle, Toni, was a tennis coach at the Club Tenis Manacor, and he put a racket in Rafa's hands at about three. Toni was a famously strict, demanding coach who never let his nephew complain, make excuses or throw his racket, and who encouraged him, though he was naturally right-handed, to play tennis left-handed. Until he was twelve Rafa played both football and tennis, before his father told him to choose. He chose tennis, turned professional at fifteen, and in 2005, at nineteen, won the French Open on his first attempt. He went on to win 22 Grand Slam titles, including a record fourteen at Roland Garros, coached by Toni for most of his career. He has always lived in Manacor and Porto Cristo, and he opened the Rafa Nadal Academy in his home town in 2016.”
🗺️ Approximate location today
📍 Street view today