Enrique Ponce and Ana Soria Speak Out: The Bullfighter’s Retirement, Financial Woes, and Television Future

Enrique Ponce and Ana Soria have surprised with their decision to sit down with Pablo Motos tonight in ‘El hormiguero’. In the information provided by the program, they advance that Ponce sits for the first time on a set with her partner, Ana Soria, to talk “about how they met and make clear, first-hand, the steps they took in their romantic relationship in the media.” After having fought to keep his privacy out of public curiosity, this move has been interpreted by some as a first step towards a future television career for the bullfighter.

Pablo Motos has taken the cat into the water of an interview expected for three years by all the media of the social press. A question of friendship? “Enrique Ponce and Pablo Motos know each other, but not long ago”, they qualify from the environment of the presenter. At the beginning of May, as published by the magazine ‘Semana’, Ponce and Ana Soria took advantage of a trip to Madrid to meet Motos and his wife for lunch. They also watched a match between Real Madrid and Almería. It seems that it was at that moment that they closed the details of the expected interview that will take place tonight.

In June 2021, the maestro announced by surprise that he was leaving the bullring and since then he has kept a very low profile in the media: “To those who have accompanied me for more than three decades, the first thing I want is to thank you for the love and unconditional support, especially in this last year of the pandemic in which I decided to defend bullfighting, move forward and give back to the world of bullfighting how much it has given me.At this point in my 2021 bullfighting season, I have decided to do a stop on the road and retire indefinitely”.

During this time, the bullfighter has not been idle. On the one hand, he has continued to be linked to the party with different activities. This weekend he received the bullfighting school of Catalonia in Cetrina. As ‘Mundotoro’ advances, the man from Chiva penned up three cows for the students and directed them from a technical point of view. Afterwards, they all had a Valencian paella and prolonged the after-meal talking about bullfights.

painful decisions

But, in addition to this, during this time the Valencian master has been putting his finances in order after the divorce from Paloma Cuevas. He has gotten rid of some properties, has made painful decisions and has undertaken some projects that excite him, such as the house in Almería that he bought with Ana Soria.

During the years in which he was active, the economic affairs of the bullfighter were in the hands of his brother and his representative. Throughout his career, the bullfighter invested the money he earned in the bullring in different businesses that did not always turn out well. The one that worked best is always the rental management, through the company CPM Building. Through this entity, Ponce owned several commercial premises and warehouses in Úbeda, Villacarrillo, Torremolinos or Fuengirola that he rented to other businessmen. His other great business activity focused on the agricultural and livestock exploitation of his large estate in Jaén, La Cetrina.

To this day, the bullfighter continues to have a gran local a few meters from the Fuengirola promenade that is looking for a tenant; a flat of more than 380 square meters in the area of ​​Pintor Rosales (Madrid); a warehouse in Villanueva del Arzobispo, and La Cetrina, which continues to be the jewel in the crown of its real estate assets. It is a good portfolio that ensures the future of him and his family, although, between 2020 and the end of 2022, the teacher He has had to ask for several million-dollar mortgages of which these properties respond to put their economic affairs in order. In recent years, Ponce has encountered some embargo urged by debts to Social Security, scares already solved. Some of these farms had already been mortgaged in 2017.

When he retired, Enrique Ponce was one of the best bullfighters in the ranks. He had been risking his life in the arenas in Spain and America for three decades. “His aesthetics (always so important in bullfighting), his technique and his knowledge of bullfighting have been the best,” says a bullfighting expert. However, the good work that he demonstrated in the squares was not seen in his facet as an entrepreneur. Beyond the handy real estate investments, he has not had much luck with the initiatives that he has launched, as happened years ago with ‘Melting pot’.

The Cetrine

In 2017, the bullfighter launched this show, a mixture of various arts and the result of his passion for music and bullfighting. His ambition was to take him to various Spanish cities. “We want to do something through more lyrical music and movie soundtracks and adapt it to a bullfight,” explained the Valencian bullfighter at a press conference. However, things did not go well.

Nor has he had any luck when he has tried to make the fabulous Cetrina farm profitable, hundreds of hectares in Jaén where he has produced gourmet oil, among other things. Today the company that manages the farm declares a negative equity of 850,000 euros. “Enrique Ponce’s olive grove extends to the Cetrina and Avenzas farms, both very close, in the municipality of Navas de San Juan. In the 400 hectares devoted to this intensive cultivation, 53,000 trees grow. Early harvest oil, fruit of picual olives collected at the end of October […]. The Picual variety has character, it is powerful. And Enrique Ponce oil, according to its producer, has a peculiar aroma, flavor and color. That characteristic spicy feature of the picual is nuanced, and we are left with a fruity oil, which smells of olive juice. An oil with a very pampered personality”, could be read in the advertisement.

The entity has just deregistered the brand under which they marketed this liquid gold. It’s time to start over.

Enrique Ponce and Ana Soria have surprised with their decision to sit down with Pablo Motos tonight in ‘El hormiguero’. In the information provided by the program, they advance that Ponce sits for the first time on a set with her partner, Ana Soria, to talk “about how they met and make clear, first-hand, the steps they took in their romantic relationship in the media.” After having fought to keep his privacy out of public curiosity, this move has been interpreted by some as a first step towards a future television career for the bullfighter.