Spain’s popular sport Padel inspires millions of people and, thanks to Arjen Robben, Geretsried too. Is the boom now spilling over to all of Germany?
Munich – Lionel Messi has a place in his garden in Barcelona. Zlatan Ibrahimovic runs a chain of courts in Sweden. Jürgen Klopp owns a facility in Berlin and fellow coach Hansi Flick recently co-founded a company that wants to build facilities in Germany. Padel is already known in Geretsried – Arjen Robben played it there regularly.
Which sport? “Padel”, says Francisco – called Paquito – Navarro, the current number nine of the World Padel Tour WPT to our newspaper, asked for the correct pronunciation. The accent is on the a, the pronunciation is Spanish. Navarro is one of six million Spaniards who play padel. The sport is the second largest in the country after football. Before basketball. Before handball. And before tennis.
Small racquets, a net that separates the two pairs (doubles are always played), an open court surrounded by glass walls and a fence from which the soft tennis ball can bounce – also the same counting as in tennis. The obvious, albeit clumsy, comparison: tennis and squash are combined. A mixture that people like better than tennis. At least in the country that is proud of Rafael Nadal and many other tennis players who have made it to the top of the world. “It’s incredible,” says Navarro of the evolution the sport has taken. “When I used to tell my school friends that I play padel, they just asked: What is padel?” the 34-year-old recalls.
Born in Seville, he started out at the age of five on a summer vacation with his family in southern Spain. In the meantime he no longer has to explain his hobby, it has become a popular sport in Spain and Argentina. He has over 521,000 followers on Instagram. With the number nine in the tennis world, Holger Rune, there are 400,000 people who have subscribed to his posts. On YouTube, the WPT has 670,000 subscribers. That’s almost twice as many as the WTA Women’s Tennis Tour. On Tiktok, the platform for a particularly young audience, the WPT – on which men and women travel together – even beats the men’s world tennis circus from the ATP. There are 641,000 followers compared to 309,000 followers.
The protagonists of this sport are stars – and professionals. “The last time I had to ask for pocket money was when I was 21,” reveals Navarro with a smile – after that he turned professional. Regarding the earning opportunities, he says: “I estimate that the four best couples in the world already earned over one million euros last year.” But not only about the prize money – the best players have sponsorship contracts with car brands, sporting goods manufacturers or beverage companies, you are invited to TV shows and asked for selfies by fans, as Navarro reports: “Not before, but now someone comes up to me when I’m on the street and wants to talk or take a picture.”
Why did the sport take this development? “I think the key is that it’s easy to play. You can have fun and enjoy it as soon as you start playing. Not like other sports where it takes more time,” says Navarro.
Christopher Hahn gives the same reason when he visits Geretsried. The 32-year-old runs a private padel and tennis facility with indoor and outdoor courts. He is also a national player and currently ranked fourth in the German padel rankings. The teams of the local STC Oberland are German champions in several age groups.
Hahn sits in the parlor of the facility and tells how he got into the sport. Originally he was a tennis player. Not with professional ambitions, but still so good that he played a few international tournaments. So also in 2018 in Italy, where he then discovered padel. “At the time, we were also looking for something to bring a little more life to the facility in the summer,” says Hahn.
He does not believe that padel will become dangerous for tennis. “With us there are maybe a handful of players who have put tennis aside and only play padel. The majority stays with tennis,” he explains and adds: “On the other hand, many footballers came from the old gentlemen for whom it was too hard for their bones to play padel.” Arjen Robben’s presence a few years ago would also have been safe no harm, he says: “Something like that gets around quickly in town and pushes, so many were quickly fired up.” So much so that there is now even an admission stop for the padel division with a waiting list. The club has over 200 pure padel members.
At the German Padel Association, such a story does not cause disbelief. “Padel is not a trend sport, but a boom sport,” it says there. President Holger van Dahle also refers to Sweden, where it is also the second largest sport and in Portugal and Italy it is “similar”. “Unlike squash back then, padel is here to stay,” he says. The development in Sweden is four years behind, says van Dahle. An estimated 20,000 people in Germany are currently playing padel, for which there are more and more courts. While there were still 138 in 2021, there were already 261 by the end of 2022.
Francisco Navarro could soon play on one of these – the World Padel Tour is scheduled to come to Germany with a tournament in 2023. In addition to Spain and Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, Mexico, Austria, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, the Netherlands, Belgium and the United Arab Emirates are also on the calendar. The date for the Germany Open is noted for the beginning of October. It is not yet certain where they will take place. According to the organizing agency, they are currently in the awarding process and in contact with German cities.
German players will not have any chances then. With the exception of one Brazilian, only Argentines and Spaniards are listed in the top 20 for women and men. The Italian, Portuguese, Swedish and French flags are mixed into the top 100 a few times on the list. The German one looks in vain among the top 250.
If the sport continues to grow, that should change. Admission to the German Olympic Sports Confederation, which would generate more funding, is in prospect. “Maybe we’ll be ready in half a year,” says van Dahle about the requirements that have to be met. That doesn’t sound like much doubt about the future.
Navarro doesn’t have them either. At the end of the talk time that his manager had promised, the Spaniard was still in a chatting mood. “Padel is like a magic potion,” he says: “Once you’ve tasted it, you can’t get enough.” Without being asked, he then starts with advice for beginners: “Just play the ball back more often than your opponents, there’s no other secret.” , he says, adding with a laugh: “Also, never play with your wife or husband, that’s dangerous.”
In 2018 he experienced that the sport can also be dangerous in another way: at a tournament he crashed into the glass wall, which then broke. “I had about 100 splinters in my knees and elbows,” remembers the hurricane from the starting area of los Remedios – that’s his second nickname after the part of Seville from which he comes. The result was a month’s break.
Accidents like this are not the norm – although there are also photos of former Barcelona captain Carles Puyol on the Internet after the same mishap. Otherwise padel is considered to be less prone to injury than tennis. Maybe that’s also an aspect that Tommy Haas liked. The German tennis icon, who was injured so often, also got into padel – as team owner of the San Diego Sting-rays, a club of the newly founded North American Pro Padel League.
