Lawyers for Cristiano Ronaldo have said they will sue a magazine that published allegations by an American woman who claims was raped by the Portuguese soccer star in 2009.
Kathryn Mayorga, 34, told German magazine Der Spiegel that she was attacked by the then Real Madrid player in a Las Vegas hotel room in June 2009. She said the attack occured after spending an evening partying with Ronaldo, who was on vacation with his cousin and his brother-in-law.
After the alleged attack, she claimed Ronaldo fell to his knees and said he was "99 per cent a good guy" who was let down by the "one per cent."
Ronaldo's lawyer said in a statement to Reuters that they would sue the magazine.
The star's lawyer, Christian Schertz, said the report was "an inadmissible reporting of suspicions in the area of privacy", and that he would seek legal redress for his client from the magazine.
The statement was sent to Reuters by Ronaldo's agent Gestifute in response to a request for comment on the Der Spiegel story.
Ronaldo is one of the biggest names in world sport. He has been named player of the year five times and transferred to Juventus from Real Madrid this summer for 100 million euros. The Italian club declined to comment on the Der Spiegel report.
In the Der Spiegel report, Mark Stovall, lawyer for the alleged victim, said Ronaldo and his client reached an out-of-court agreement after the alleged attack. It said, according to Stovall, that she had pledged never to speak of the accusation again and Ronaldo paid her $375,000.
Stovall told Der Spiegel, however, that he had filed a civil complaint seeking to declare the non-disclosure agreement void.
"The purpose of this lawsuit is to hold Cristiano Ronaldo responsible within a civil court of law for the injuries he has caused Kathryn Mayorga and the consequences of those injuries," he said.
Schertz said he would seek compensation from Der Spiegel for "moral damages in an amount corresponding to the gravity of the infringement, which is probably one of the most serious violations of personal rights in recent years."
The magazine's Deputy Editor-in-Chief, Alfred Weinzierl, told Reuters that Der Spiegel had repeatedly written to Ronaldo's management and lawyers about the allegations before publishing its report.
"We sent written questions, to which there were no answers. Nobody sued us in connection with earlier Ronaldo reports," he said in an email.
Mayorga told Der Spiegel she no longer felt bound by the non-disclosure agreement as she suffers from the consequences of the night nine years ago.
"I've had like these serious breakdowns," she told the magazine. "And again, blaming of the rape. And I blame him, and I blame myself for signing that thing."
