Cristiano Ronaldo's legal team is planning to sue German publication Der Spiegel after the magazine published allegations by an American woman who has accused the Juventus forward of raping her in 2009.
The magazine said that the alleged rape took place in a Palms Place hotel room in Las Vegas in June 2009 with alleged victim Kathryn Mayorga, 34, now looking to void a non-disclosure agreement following an apparent $375,000 out-of-court settlement in which Mayorga would never speak of the alleged incident again.
According to
Reuters, Ronaldo has denied all of what his lawyers called “blatantly illegal” accusations and it is understood that he now plans to sue Der Spiegel for “an inadmissible reporting of suspicions in the area of privacy.”
Der Spiegel had previously reported on the settlement and the alleged incident.
Ronaldo's solicitor, Professor Dr Christian Schertz, said that the Portuguese international would be looking for compensation for moral damages.
Schertz wrote in a statement:
"Following the current SPIEGEL reporting on our client Cristiano Ronaldo, we hereby declare the following: The reporting in SPIEGEL is blatantly illegal. It violates the personal rights of our client Cristiano Ronaldo in an exceptionally serious way.
"This is an inadmissible reporting of suspicions in the area of privacy. It would therefore already be unlawful to reproduce this reporting.
"We have been instructed to immediately assert all existing claims under press law against SPIEGEL, in particular compensation 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."
