Juventus have backed their star player Cristiano Ronaldo, after Kathryn Mayorga alleged that the player had raped her in 2009.
The Italian club sent out two tweets to back Ronaldo against the allegations which were brought forth last week. Juventus said that Ronaldo's "professionalism and dedication" is appreciated by everyone at the club and the allegations of rape do not change their opinion of him.
.@Cristiano Ronaldo has shown in recent months his great professionalism and dedication, which is appreciated by everyone at Juventus. 1/1
— JuventusFC (@juventusfcen) October 4, 2018
The events allegedly dating back to almost 10 years ago do not change this opinion, which is shared by anyone who has come into contact with this great champion. 2/2
— JuventusFC (@juventusfcen) October 4, 2018
Ronaldo recently denied the rape allegations levelled at him and said that the crime goes everything against what he stands for and believes in him and labelled the story as "fake news".
I firmly deny the accusations being issued against me. 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.
— Cristiano Ronaldo (@Cristiano) October 3, 2018
My clear conscious will thereby allow me to await with tranquillity the results of any and all investigations.
— Cristiano Ronaldo (@Cristiano) October 3, 2018
German news publication Der Spiegel, shared the story of Mayorga, who alleges that Ronaldo raped her in 2009 at a penthouse suite in Las Vegas. A year later, Ronaldo agreed to pay $375,000 as an out-of-court settlement to shush Mayorga and not bring these allegations to the public.
The Las Vegas police have now said that the case has been reopened and that their detectives will follow up on the case.
Nike, who reportedly have $1billion deal with the player, stated that they are following the matter closely and that they are "deeply concerned by the disturbing allegations", while EA Sports, the publisher of the FIFA series of video games where Ronaldo is the cover star of the latest iteration, also said that they are "closely monitoring the situation".
Ronaldo and Juventus will face Udinese over the weekend, but won't feature for Portugal against Scotland and Poland.
