Words by President of the Government at ceremony to bestow Gold Medal for Merit at Work on Rafael Nadal

Ladies and gentlemen, a very good day to you all.

First of all I would like to thank Rafael Nadal and his team who have come here today. We are all aware of what needs to be done at this time, of where he needs to be and what he should be doing, and for that reason we particularly value this visit.

As everyone knows, what we are here for today is to hand over the Gold Medal for Merit at Work awarded by the Council of Ministers and H.M. the King. We did this on 13 June last year, 2014; what happened was that Rafael could not attend the award ceremony in November because he was recovering from an operation for appendicitis. That is why we are here today and we are all very pleased and proud that this is the case.

The whole world knows who Rafael Nadal is and everyone is aware of his track record, including myself. I am not going to list his achievements, mainly because we all have other things to do during the course of the day and it would go on interminably; but I cannot resist the temptation to mention those achievements I feel to be most important:

He is the second in the list of tennis players to have won the greatest number of Grand Slam events; second for the time being; he has won more Roland Garros tournaments than anyone else - nine in total - and I believe that this achievement will not be beaten by anyone else in centuries to come, except perhaps by himself; he has won more Masters 1000 tournaments than anyone else; he is the best clay-court player ever and moreover, he has won more clay-court titles than anyone else, although we have just discovered that after he won in Buenos Aires, Vilas travelled all over the place to tournaments in Toronto and other places which were classified as clay-court events; but it doesn't matter, you are the best clay-court player ever and everyone knows that... You have won four Davis Cups and you won at the Olympic Games in Beijing. I saw that match at Frankfurt Airport when passing through.

Having said that, the Gold Medal for Merit at Work is not awarded for this reason. The Gold Medal for Merit at Work is awarded, as the rules say, in recognition of useful and exemplary conduct in the performance of any job. When the Council of Ministers bestowed the Merit at Work awards, on that occasion it was also given posthumously to Mercedes Salisachs and to Paco de Lucía; and Rafael Nadal has been awarded this Gold Medal for Merit at Work for his hard work, for his constant demands on himself, for his enthusiasm, his balance, his modesty and for having his feet firmly on the ground. In short, he was bestowed the award for a job well done which, moreover, has also led to the major achievements we are all well aware of.

A job well done is a very important challenge and having a job is also a very important challenge. Today is Labour Day and there are many people in Spain who still don't have a job; but things are starting to get better and I am convinced that this year many people in Spain will find a job and that this will continue on into the years to come. At the end of the day, the challenge facing everyone is this; to have a job and then to perform it well, which is exactly what Rafael Nadal has done.

Thank you very much.