The Footballers Who've Properly Fallen for Padel

One has gone full professional. One built two courts at home. One plays in Miami with former world number ones. Here are the footballers who didn't just dabble — they got hooked.

Padel has always had a football problem. Not a bad one — the opposite, actually. For years, any time a camera appeared at a padel club in Spain, South America, or increasingly the UK, there was a decent chance a footballer was on the other side of the glass wall.

Some of them dabble. A few have gone much further. Below are the ones who've properly committed — either by competing professionally, building courts at home, or simply being spotted far too often on a padel court to be written off as casual.

If you needed proof that padel has arrived, this is probably it.

1. Arjen Robben — Gone Fully Professional

Robben is the headline act. He retired from football in 2021 after a brief return to Groningen — the Dutch club where his career started — and spent the next few years quietly becoming genuinely good at padel. Not "good for a footballer" good. Good enough to obtain a professional licence and enter a sanctioned FIP Tour event.

In August 2025, he entered the FIP Bronze Westerbork alongside his partner Werner Lootsma. More than 500 people showed up just to watch the qualifying rounds. Robben and Lootsma won their qualifier in a scrappy three-set match — saving six match points along the way — and earned a spot in the main draw, picking up his first ever FIP ranking points in the process.

The main draw wasn't as kind. Sten Richters and Thijs Roper — ranked 155th and 144th in the world — beat them 6-1, 6-0. But the opponents' reaction afterwards told its own story. They called Robben the best former professional footballer they'd ever seen play padel.

"I don't think I can take myself too seriously. I started with low expectations. But I tried to fight on the court and score as many points as possible."

His padel story started at Bayern Munich, where he played three times a week. He's since had a full court built at home and openly modelled his ambitions on Zlatan Ibrahimovic's influence on padel in Sweden — he reckons he can do the same for the Netherlands.

As of early 2026, he's ranked around 2,171 in the world with a best ever ranking of 1,644. For context, the world number one has over 20,000 points. He knows exactly where he stands — and is playing anyway.

2. David Beckham — Ambassador and Regular Player

Beckham is padel's most recognisable face in the English-speaking world. He plays regularly at Reserve Padel in Miami — one of the sport's most high-profile clubs in the US — and has been photographed on court with his son Romeo and on at least one occasion with former world number one Juan Martín Díaz.

He's done the circuit work too. He was spotted in Qatar watching professional padel during the 2022 World Cup. He's been linked to Premier Padel's ambassador programme. For a sport trying to break through in the UK and the US simultaneously, having Beckham's face associated with it is worth more than most marketing budgets.

The Reserve club in Miami — where Beckham is apparently a regular — has become a padel social hub for professional athletes in the city. Regular visitors reportedly include Lionel Messi and NBA star Dwyane Wade.

3. Neymar — Two Courts at Home, Taught an NBA Star

Neymar didn't just get into padel. He built two courts at his villa in Brazil. Two. That's not a casual hobby — that's a lifestyle choice.

He's been posting padel content on social media for years, regularly tagging former teammates and challenging them to games. In 2020, he posted a photo from a match and former Barcelona captain Carles Puyol immediately challenged him to a game.

The most interesting Neymar padel story, though, involves NBA All-Star Jimmy Butler. Butler has said publicly that it was Neymar who introduced him to the sport — and Butler is now himself an obsessive padel player, describing it as complementing his basketball skills. One footballer seeding padel into a completely different professional sport. That's influence.

4. Lionel Messi — Court at Home, Plays Regularly in Miami

Messi has a padel court at his home. He's in Miami, his teammates and fellow footballers are all playing, and the Reserve club has become a regular destination for him alongside Beckham.

He's been photographed playing with former Barcelona teammate Luis Suárez — which is the padel equivalent of a dream doubles pairing. Neither are likely to threaten the professional rankings, but the best footballer of his generation making padel part of his daily life matters for the sport's profile.

5. Carles Puyol — Went Through a Glass Wall. Still Plays.

Puyol might be the most committed padel player on this list — not in a competitive sense, but in the sense that he posted a photo on Instagram of himself with a bloodied face after going through a glass wall during a match in 2019, and apparently kept on playing.

He attends padel tournaments in Spain regularly, challenges former teammates to games on social media, and has been part of the Spanish padel scene since retirement. For a man who spent his Barcelona career throwing himself in front of shots and headers without flinching, the glass wall incident was probably just a Tuesday.

6. Francesco Totti — Competed at a World Cup Legends Tournament

Totti's padel got a very public airing at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, where a legends tournament was held featuring several former professionals. Alongside Totti: Ronaldo (the Brazilian one), Kaká, Diego Forlán, and Gabriel Batistuta — essentially a Champions League squad assembled on a padel court.

The imagery of some of the most decorated footballers of the past thirty years competing in padel at a World Cup was exactly the kind of mainstream crossover moment the sport needed.

Totti has been a padel enthusiast for years in Italy, where the sport has grown quickly. His involvement, alongside his status as arguably the most beloved footballer in Italian history, has helped legitimise padel in a country where football is treated as a religion.

7. Iker Casillas — Played Competitively Against an Atlético Rival

Casillas — Real Madrid legend, World Cup winner, and a man who spent most of his career as a bitter rival of Atlético Madrid — was spotted in a padel tournament facing off against Juanfran, Atlético's former right-back.

Madrid vs Atlético on a padel court. Somehow it works. Padel has a way of doing that — stripping away the tribalism and replacing it with something simpler: two people with a shared obsession, four walls, and a glass back.

8. Patrick Kluivert — Part of the Dutch Padel Scene for Years

Kluivert has been part of the Dutch and Spanish padel communities for years. As a Barcelona player and Netherlands legend, he sits at the intersection of two of padel's biggest markets, and has been a regular presence at clubs and events in both countries. Part of a wider network of former internationals for whom padel has become the default post-career sport.

And the Rest…

The full list is long enough to fill its own directory. A few more worth mentioning:

Zlatan Ibrahimovic — possibly the most culturally significant person on this list. Zlatan's enthusiasm for padel in Sweden is widely credited with driving the sport's rapid growth there. Robben has explicitly cited him as an inspiration. When a player of Zlatan's personality commits to something publicly, people follow.

Zinedine Zidane — has gone beyond playing and invested in padel centres in the south of France, particularly around Aix-en-Provence and Marseille. Not just a fan — helping build the infrastructure.

Xavi, Andrés Iniesta, Sergio Busquets — the entire spine of one of the greatest club sides in history apparently play padel. The tiki-taka generation are now a tiki-taka padel generation. It makes sense — the spatial intelligence required in both sports overlaps considerably.

Andrea Pirlo — reportedly a regular player. Which feels entirely on brand.

Peter Crouch — UK representative, confirmed player. Crouch at 6'7" on a padel court is an image worth sitting with for a moment.

Ryan Giggs and Shay Given — both investors in The Padel Club, a UK-based padel operator. Not just playing — backing the sport with actual money.

So Why Padel?

It's not random. Every sport these footballers could play in retirement — golf, tennis, five-a-side — they've tried. Padel keeps winning for a few specific reasons.

It's social in a way golf isn't and tennis only partially is. Doubles by default means you're always playing with someone, and the enclosed court means rallies last long enough to be fun even at a modest level. The skills transfer from football — quick feet, spatial awareness, reading angles — in a way that makes former footballers feel competent quickly. And the competitive ceiling is high enough that people like Robben can spend years improving and still have somewhere to go.

For the sport's growth in the UK, this matters. People take up sports their heroes play. The fact that the list above reads like a Ballon d'Or roll call is not a coincidence — and it's not a bad argument to make to anyone who's been putting off booking their first court session.

Find your nearest padel court at PadelPickleClub.