ATP Roberto Bautista futbol

Roberto Bautista trades his racket for boots and makes his debut with a double

Fernando Murciego - 14 Aug 2026
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Roberto Bautista trades his racket for boots and makes his debut with a double. Source: Getty

Roberto Bautista has begun his second sporting life in the best possible way. Just a few weeks after ending his professional tennis career, the player from Castellón returned to the field to play football with CD Els Ibarsos and his debut couldn't have been more striking: two goals in just 40 minutes against Morella, in a pre-season friendly that ended with his team's victory 4-2.

At 38 years old, Bautista has regained a passion he had to give up during his teenage years to dedicate himself to tennis. Before becoming one of the best Spanish tennis players of the last few decades, he was part of the youth teams of Villarreal. Now, 24 years after leaving football, he returns to the sport as a forward for Els Ibarsos, a club especially linked to his family, as his father, Ximo Bautista, played there for many years.

And his debut was more about football than symbolism. Bautista wore the number 11 jersey and needed just a few minutes to show that competitive instinct doesn't disappear when swapping a racket for a ball. He scored two nearly consecutive goals, in a performance that left very positive impressions in his new team. In total, he played around 40 minutes and confirmed that his return isn't intended to be just an anecdotal appearance after his retirement from tennis.

Bautista has explained that his intention is, above all, to enjoy an activity he had to set aside for so many years. “Now I want to enjoy,” he recently stated. And his first match seems to have given him reasons to do so. After thousands of hours hitting a yellow ball, the former tennis player has discovered that he can still cause a lot of damage with a football. The first brace is already in the bag; now the real challenge begins, to see how far this second sporting career goes.

This is an automatic translation. You can read the original news, Roberto Bautista cambia la raqueta por las botas y debuta con un doblete