Representatives for superstar Cristiano Ronaldo have strongly denied allegations that he raped an unidentified woman in a Las Vegas hotel room in 2009 and then paid her a fortune to cover it up.
On Friday, German newspaper Der Spiegel reported that Cristiano Ronaldo paid an unidentified woman $375,000 to silence her, following an alleged rape incident in 2009 shortly after his world-record transfer from Manchester United to Real Madrid. Hours after the story was published, Ronaldo’s representatives released a statement calling the claim: “Nothing but a piece of journalistic fiction.”
Ronaldo’s management company Gestifute issued the statement, which went on to say, "The accusations reported by the Der Spiegel are false, and Cristiano Ronaldo will do everything in his power to react against these. An accusation of an act of rape is disgusting and outraging, and he will not allow it to hang over his reputation."
"A disgusting and outrageous accusation" - Gestifute statement on claims made about Cristiano Ronaldo in Der Spiegel pic.twitter.com/OE20OQetx0
— Alex Richards (@AA_Richards) April 14, 2017
In responding to the rape allegations, representatives from Gestifute state: "The whole accusation is based on unsigned documents where the parties are identified by code names. Also, there is the matter of a letter supposedly sent by the alleged victim, although Ronaldo nor his representatives have ever received or known these documents to even exist."
Der Spiegel, who claim to know the identity of the alleged victim, have yet to respond to the statement by Ronaldo's team.