Cristiano Ronaldo's management company Gestifute issued a statement on Friday night refuting a report that the Portugal star paid $375,000 to settle an allegation of rape.
Citing documents from an out-of-court agreement, German news magazine Der Spiegel reported that Ronaldo's lawyer agreed to a settlement in 2010 after an alleged incident in Las Vegas a year earlier, soon after Ronaldo agreed to move from Manchester United to Real Madrid.
But Gestifute, founded by Ronaldo's agent Jorge Mendes, called the story "a piece of journalistic fiction" and said Ronaldo would "do everything in his power" to protect his reputation.
The statement read: "Today, the German newspaper Der Spiegel published a long article regarding an alleged accusation of rape that would have been directed at Cristiano Ronaldo in 2009, i.e. about 8 years ago.
"The article is nothing but a piece of journalistic fiction.
"The alleged victim refuses to come forward and confirm the veracity of the accusation. The newspaper has based their entire narrative on documents which are unsigned and where the parties are not identified, on emails between lawyers whose content does not concern Cristiano Ronaldo and whose authenticity he cannot verify, and on an alleged letter that is said to have been sent to him by the so-called victim, but was never received by Cristiano.
"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."
