Cristiano Ronaldo threatens legal action against German magazine claims he raped American woman

Cristiano Ronaldo is to sue a German magazine after it published accusations by an American woman she was raped nine years ago by the star [Courtesy]

Lawyers for the former Manchester United star are to take legal action against Der Spiegel over “blatantly illegal” allegations.

Kathryn Mayorga, 34, was unveiled on Friday as the woman who has accused Ronaldo of sexually assaulting her in a Las Vegas hotel room.

The Juventus star was on holiday in Sin City in 2009 with his cousin and brother-in-law when he met the part-time model.

The Juventus star was on holiday in Sin City in 2009 [Courtesy]

During the alleged incident, 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".

Later, Ronaldo allegedly paid her £287,000 as an out-of-court settlement which contracted her to never speak about her claims.

The footballer, 33, denies the allegations - which first surfaced on the Football Leaks website in April 2017. According to court documents Der Spiegel claims to have seen, Ronaldo insists the sex was consensual.

His lawyers, Schertz Bergmann Rechtsanwälte, issued a statement denying Mayorga’s rape claim saying they would sue for “compensation for moral damages”.

His lawyers issued a statement denying Mayorga’s rape claim saying they would sue for “compensation for moral damages [Courtesy]

His solicitor, Professor Dr Christian Schertz said: “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.”

In a video published online by the magazine, Mayorga’s Las Vegas lawyer Leslie Mark Stovall said: “Kathryn was sexually assaulted in June 2009 by an individual named Cristiano Ronaldo.”

He told Spiegel 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.