Tennis: “the same salaries ? No, what for ?”, Rafael Nadal's astonishing slip on the subject of women creates controversy

Le champion a crée la polémique lors de sa dernière sortie médiatique. MAXPPP – JONO SEARLE

Le tennisman Rafael Nadal a créé la polémique en Espagne après une déclaration maladroite sur le salaire des femmes. 

Injured again since the Brisbane tournament at the beginning of January, Rafael Nadal made headlines this week after a slip-up on feminism. Asked about his role as ambassador of the Saudi federation, a country widely criticized due to non-respect of human rights, the Spaniard tried to say: rsquo;address the issue of feminism in the show El Objectivo on the Spanish channel La Sexta.

The latter first declared that'"there must be the same investments and the same opportunities" for women and men. But on the question of the pay gap between men and women, Nadal surprisingly retorted:  "The same salaries ? No, what for ?".

"Hopefully a gay friend and a black neighbor"

Aware of his blunder, the former world number one tried to make up for it: "If you tell me that feminism is thinking that a man and a woman deserve exactly the same opportunities, I am a feminist". Subsequently, the multiple winner of Roland Garros also added that he regrets that feminism is pushed to "the’extreme". "I have a mother and a sister", he then defended more than ten sometimes very clumsily in the show.

Even if Nadal still recognized that Saudi Arabia was "a country very behind in many areas& quot;, in order to defuse the embarrassment into which he got himself into, the daily newspaper El País did not hesitated to set the player on fire in his editorial: "This moment is magnificent when Nadal says that he has a sister and a mother. Hopefully a gay friend, a black neighbor and we would have the gentleman's all-inclusive package not yet deconstructed."