Cristiano Ronaldo will reportedly miss at least two games for the Portugal national team later this month as he battles rape allegations in the United States. According to TMZ Sports, Cristiano won't be suiting up for Portugal's game against Poland on October 11, or their October 14th matchup against Scotland.
The 33-year old soccer star reportedly met with Portugal coach Fernando Santos and Portuguese federation president Fernando Gomes and all agreed it was best for him to step away for at least a few games.
Ronaldo is being sued by a woman named Kathryn Mayorga, who alleges that the soccer superstar raped her at a Las Vegas hotel back in 2009. BBC reports that Mayorga reportedly reached an out-of-court settlement with Ronaldo in 2010, involving a $375,000 payment for agreeing never to go public with the allegations. Her lawyers are now seeking to declare the non-disclosure agreement void.
Mayorga claims Cristiano at Rain Nightclub in the Palms hotel in June of 2009 and he later invited her up to his penthouse suite. There are photos of the two hanging out at the nightclub together on the night in question, but Ronaldo has vehemently denied the rape allegations.
"I firmly deny the accusations being issued against me," Ronaldo said in a statement on social media today. "Rape is an abominable crime that goes against everything that I am and believe in. Keen as I may be to clear my name, I refuse to feed the media spectacle created by people seeking to promote themselves at my expense. My clear conscious will thereby allow me to await with tranquillity the results of any and all investigations."
