Sure, Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift’s ongoing whirlwind romance might be getting slightly more media attention than the exploding number of new celebrities falling in love with padel week after week…
But, once you have a look at all of the big names who are now not only taking up the game but also making major investments in it, you’ll start to get some sense of why the coming U.S. padel boom could wind up being bigger than anyone anticipated.
Among the A-listers who’ve now reportedly caught the padel bug are:
- Andre Agassi: While many people may associate the U.S. tennis legend and eight-time major champion with pickleball, Agassi recently hopped on the padel court with his friend David Beckham and social media understandably went wild (though more than a few people mistakenly thought they were playing pickleball, rather than padel).
- David Beckham: The heartthrob former U.K. soccer superstar — and subject of a wildly successful documentary from Netflix — is said to be a huge fan of the sport who plays regularly when at home in Miami. He’s even been spotted in places as far flung as Qatar watching professional padel.
- Jimmy Buffett: The late, great, Margarita-loving music legend posted a photo on Instagram of himself playing at Wynwood Padel in February 2022 with the caption, “Padel anyone?”
- Jimmy Butler: The six-time NBA All Star is an avowed padel devotee who learned the game from his good friend and soccer icon Neymar. Butler can be found playing regularly with other basketball superstars like Dwayne Wade and has said, “Padel complements my basketball skills mentally. The sport teaches me to always compete, which translates to basketball the most. Physically, it’s about endurance, ankle stability, and change of pace and direction.”
- Juan Martin del Potro: The former U.S. Open champion made big headlines last summer when he hopped on the padel court with fellow celebrities Daddy Yankee and Tommy Haas to promote the Pro Padel League, in which del Porto serves as a strategic advisor for the Miami Padel Club franchise.
- Zlatan Ibrahimovic: The Swedish soccer star has fallen in love with the game to the point that he has invested in a major court-building company and helped to fund the Padel Zenter chain at multiple sites across Sweden.
- Tommy Haas: Although the German tennis star never won a major, he was ranked as high as No. 2 in the world and is widely regarded as one of the best players of his generation. So, it perhaps only makes sense that he has now gravitated to padel. Not only is Haas involved with the San Diego Stingrays of the North-American Pro Padel League, but he’s also stated that he believes padel will soon become an Olympic sport.
- Eva Longoria: As we reported, the world-renowned actress, director, entrepreneur, and activist Eva Longoria has announced that she is the proud co-owner of a padel team that will compete in the revolutionary new Hexagon Cup in Madrid in early 2024.
- Elle Macpherson: The Australian actress, model, and businesswomen has repeatedly posted photos on Instragram of her playing padel (in a designer dress, no less!).
- Lionel Messi:The Argentine soccer legend and reigning FIFA World Cup champion loves playing padel so much that he had a court built at his house in Barcelona according to numerous sources.
- Andy Murray: The three-time-Grand-Slam winner and former world #1 tennis player has become a leading advocate for padel’s global growth, and along with his brother, Jamie, has launched Game4Padel — which has become the U.K.’s leading provider of padel courts and is making major investments in other markets including Australia.
- Raphael Nadal: The Spanish tennis legend, who is arguably the greatest men’s player of all-time, has said he considers himself “neither good or bad” at padel. But he obviously enjoys the sport immensely and understands its incredible growth potential, as evidenced by the fact that he has committed to build nine state-of-the-art padel courts at the new Rafa Nadal Academy in Malaga, Spain.
- Cristiano Ronaldo: The Portuguese soccer phenom recently announced that one of his companies, CR7, S.A., is a major investor in the “Cidade do Padel”, which is a world-class, 17-court padel facility that’s being constructed just outside Lisbon and is scheduled to be completed by 2025.
- Serena Williams: The U.S. tennis icon, who is arguably the greatest women’s player of all-time, is an avid padel player and has said, “I love the game because it’s fast-moving and I feel like there isn’t as much pressure as playing in front of thousands of people. Every single person on my team is awesome – we’re all friends and we hang out together after matches.”
- Daddy Yankee: The retired Puerto Rican rapper, singer, songwriter, and actor recently brought a brand-new Pro Padel League team to Orlando for the 2024 season, and says, “We will give more flow to padel, this team will change the face of the sport.”
- Zinedine Zidane: The French soccer legend and former World Cup champion has transitioned from one pitch to another and not only regularly plays the world’s fastest growing sport but has also made padel a key feature of the Z5 sports complexes he has opened around France.
Of course, despite the popularity of padel soaring over the past few years here in the U.S., pickleball remains the de facto leader of the “racket sports 2.0” wave for now.
But with everyone from The New York Post to The Today Show suggesting that celebrities, sports stars, and social-media influencers are graduating to padel — and Axios labeling padel as “the new golf” — it may not be long before a new king is crowned.
This article was originally published November 5, 2023. It has been updated.
