But the player has now been lauded for reportedly donating €1 million from his own pocket to help the community devastated after a river burst its bank and claimed 13 lives.
Although he has remained tight-lipped over the donation, it was reported in the Diario de Mallorca and has not been denied.
The tennis star, who was brought up on the Balearic Island and still has a home in in Porto Cristo, just 11km from the disaster area, has said that the funds raised from a charity golf tournament he organised would also go to victims of the floods.
In the aftermath of the floods in October, Nadal offered those displaced from their homes by flood water refuge at his tennis academy which is 13 km from Sant Llorenç in the larger town of Manacor.
He was photographed in wellies and with a broom in hand, as he joined other volunteers clearing up after the flood water receded.
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