Spanish businessman Nicolás Vallejo-Nágera has taken charge of football club CD Badajoz, declaring he has found far more professional opportunities in Spain than Miami.
The entrepreneur, widely known by his nickname Colate, is working to steer the historic club out of insolvency after being appointed to its senior leadership following a commercial takeover.
Speaking about his corporate commitments, Vallejo-Nágera revealed that his ultimate ambition in the sport is to share a presidential box with Real Madrid chief Florentino Pérez with both men attending as club presidents.
The move marks a major career pivot for the Madrid-born public relations executive, who spent two decades living in southern Florida and whose high-profile marriage to Mexican pop singer Paulina Rubio ended in a protracted and bitter custody battle.
Vallejo-Nágera said he was enjoying a sweet moment upon returning home like a prodigal son, noting that his professional landscape in Spain had proved far more fertile over the past two years than during his extended stay in the United States.
He explained that during earlier years when he was more heavily dedicated to raising his son, he had been unable to concentrate as intensely on his commercial enterprises.
His present business ventures span diverse industries, including the production of Mexican mezcal and a luxury car rental company. However, he stressed that football administration and his role leading CD Badajoz in Spain's fourth tier now occupy the vast majority of his working schedule.
Takeover and Financial Rescue at CD Badajoz
A lifelong supporter of Real Madrid who has followed football passionately since childhood, Vallejo-Nágera arrived in sports management entirely by chance through his primary professional discipline.
He explained that he had been working on an advertising contract with sports investor Luis Oliver Sierra, marketing being the field he understood and had worked in for 30 years, at the exact moment Oliver moved to acquire the club. Oliver subsequently offered him the opportunity to join the management project.
Oliver purchased the majority shareholding of the Extremadura club through the commercial entity Lanuspe, S.L., installing Vallejo-Nágera as vice-president of the board of directors in July 2024 before his elevation to club president.
The new management faced an immediate and daunting task to rescue the team while navigating formal insolvency proceedings that threatened its future.
Vallejo-Nágera described the rescue operation as a long-term journey, stating that he was happy doing the work despite the difficult circumstances and pointing out that the board was fighting with whatever tools remained available.
He clarified that he does not hold equity in the sporting entity at present, explaining that his responsibilities remain strictly focused on executive management, though he observed that in a long-term undertaking circumstances may change over time.
CD Badajoz, founded in 1905 and based in the southwestern city of Badajoz near the Portuguese border, has endured years of severe financial instability. The club spent more than a decade in Spain's second division during the 1990s and early 2000s, but accumulated debts eventually pushed the side down into the lower regional divisions of the Spanish league system.
Scouting Advice and Custody Battle
Vallejo-Nágera revealed that his decision to enter the football industry was inspired directly by his son, Nicolás, who lives thousands of miles away in Miami.
He said his son had provided significant encouragement to take on the executive role. Following the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, the boy developed an intense passion for the sport, studying matches continuously until football became an obsession.
The teenager follows both La Liga and the English Premier League closely, watching matches constantly and even evaluating potential talent. Vallejo-Nágera disclosed that his son recommended specific transfer targets to CD Badajoz, leading directly to the signing of one player who is currently part of the first-team squad.
That growing passion across the Atlantic has prompted the young man to seek a permanent move to Spain. Vallejo-Nágera stated that his son was desperate to relocate to Badajoz so he could observe the team and its development in person.
However, any relocation remains unviable because of continuing legal disputes between Vallejo-Nágera and Rubio. The former couple separated in 2012 and have engaged in recurrent court battles over parental rights for more than a decade.
The dispute returned to the courtroom in 2025, when Vallejo-Nágera sought to register their son as an official resident in Spain. During those proceedings, the businessman submitted allegations claiming the child had suffered mistreatment by his mother.
Rubio, an internationally celebrated recording artist who rose to fame with pop group Timbiriche before selling millions of solo records across Latin America and the United States, has consistently contested custody arrangements in Florida courts.
Ambitions With Florentino Pérez and Debt Clearance
Putting his courtroom battles aside, Vallejo-Nágera has focused his attention on revitalising CD Badajoz and pursuing his personal goals in Spanish football.
His primary ambition is to sit alongside Real Madrid president Florentino Pérez in the presidential box at a competitive fixture, with both men attending as club presidents.
Vallejo-Nágera stated that he knows and respects Pérez personally, affirming that nothing would bring him greater joy than sharing a box with the veteran football executive, for whom he expressed profound affection and admiration.
Pérez has served as Real Madrid president across two eras, presiding over multiple European Cup triumphs while transforming the club into a global commercial powerhouse from the presidential suite at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium.
Before such high-profile encounters can become reality, CD Badajoz must complete its financial recovery from the lower tiers of the Spanish pyramid. The team currently plays in the Segunda Federación, the fourth tier of Spanish football administered by the Royal Spanish Football Federation.
The new ownership has already injected significant capital to stabilise the balance sheet. By September 2024, the ownership group had cleared 1,055,178.33 euros in post-insolvency debts owed to creditors against the insolvency estate.
Under Spanish insolvency law, claims against the bankruptcy estate must be satisfied as a matter of priority to prevent commercial entities from sliding into compulsory liquidation.
The new management also posted a financial deposit of 268,322 euros to provide the necessary bank guarantee required to register and compete in the fifth-tier Tercera Federación, securing the club's immediate survival on the pitch.
