Cristiano Ronaldo to sue Der Spiegel over rape claim

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Cristiano Ronaldo is set to sue German magazine Der Spiegel over "blatantly illegal" accusations by an American woman claiming he raped her in 2009.

In an exclusive story published on Friday, Kathryn Mayorga told Der Spiegel for the first time that she was raped by Ronaldo nine years ago in a hotel room in Las Vegas where the Juventus star was on holiday.

Mayorga claimed Ronaldo fell to his knees after the alleged incident and asked her if she was in pain. Later, the former Manchester United and Real Madrid talisman said he was "99 percent a good guy" who was let down by the "one percent."

According to Mayorga's lawyer Mark Stovall, she had pledged never to speak of the incident again after Ronaldo allegedly paid her 375,000 US dollars as an out-of-court settlement.

However, Der Spiegel revealed that Stovall 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," Stovall told Der Spiegel.

The rape scandal first surfaced on Der Spiegel in April 2017 when the story was wholly based on court documents sent to the German magazine by whistleblowing platform Football Leaks.

According to the leaked documents, Ronaldo had denied the allegations and insisted the sex was consensual.

Cristiano Ronaldo on a yacht in St Tropez during his summer holiday, September 9, 2018. /VCG Photo

On Friday night, Ronaldo's lawyer Schertz Bergmann Rechtsanwalte issued a public statement vehemently denying Mayorga's rape claim.

"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," it concluded.