Rafael Nadal received the Leyenda Award at the 19th edition of the AS Sports Awards 2025. The award ceremony will take place on Monday, December 1 at the Palace Hotel in Madrid. It is also a tribute to the tennis player, the best athlete in Spanish history. In this first year without Nadal on the court, the sports newspaper affiliated with the PRISA group wanted to praise him for his exceptional career, which embodies the values of determination, commitment and excellence in sports. Accompanied by part of his family, the tennis player will be supported by a long list of companions and will receive different surprises throughout the night. Among them are dozens of letters written in special clay ink, written by tennis school students and newspaper readers, and bearing the slogan “Dear Rafa.”
In addition to the tennis player, in this edition the following were honored as AS Sports 2025 Awards: This year’s MotoGP Champion, Marc Marquez, who signed one of the most amazing comebacks after injury in this sport, not only in his discipline; Spanish women’s cycling, having achieved four medals at the World Championships in Rwanda and three medals at the European Championships; Maria Pérez, the first woman in the history of athletics to hold two world gold medals (Budapest 2023 and Tokyo 2025) in the individual events (20 and 35 km walk), History of Spanish Sports; and Iris Tio, six-time medalist at the World Championships in Singapore, who became the first Spanish world champion in freestyle solo artistic swimming.
The men’s water polo team also received the same award for the second world gold medal of this generation. Women’s basketball teams in five categories reached the podium in 2025; Cyclist Albert Torres, Omnium World Champion at the Track Cycling World Championships; Alex Palo, the first Spaniard to win the Indianapolis 500; And the Roig Arena, a project that arose when Valencia Basket won the ACB league in 2017 and which in just three months has transformed the social and cultural life of the city.
The Positive Sport Awards, for her values and resilience, were given to badminton champion Carolina Marin, who always knew how to overcome after suffering three very serious knee injuries; And to the Rafa Nadal Foundation to provide personal and social development opportunities for children and young people living in vulnerable situations and to promote values through sport. The AS Lifetime Achievement Awards for this edition go to footballers Jesus Navas, Raphael Varane, Raul Gonzalez and Fernando Torres.
Navas hangs up his boots at the end of 2024 after a career full of achievements at Sevilla, where he holds the record for the player who played the most official matches and won the most titles. Varane played an important role in Real Madrid winning four Champions League titles and was world champion with France in 2018. Raul reached 323 goals for the white club (beating a legend like Di Stéfano) and three Champions League titles almost in a row (from 1998 to 2002). And Fernando Torres, who has always known how to take the values of a high-level athlete to the highest level, was World Champion (2010) and European Champion with the national team (2008).