Soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo will be missing two upcoming games amid recent rape allegations that have recently surfaced against him.
According to TMZ Sports, the 33-year-old has been left off his Portugal team’s roster for a game against Poland (Oct. 11 ) as well as a match against Scotland (Oct. 14).
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The outlet notes that Ronaldo met with both his coach Fernando Santos and Portuguese federation president Fernando Gomes, and the three men all agreed that it would best for him to take these games off.
No announcement has been made directly connecting Ronaldo’s leave to the rape allegations, but the timing is certainly coincidental.
The allegations came to light within the past week, with a lawsuit brought against Ronaldo by a 33-year-old woman named Kathryn Mayorga citing that she claims he assaulted her in a hotel suit in 2009.
She claimed that after she refused to perform a specific sex act on him, he grabbed her and forced himself on her. Ronaldo has since denied the claims directly, releasing a statement via Twitter.
“I firmly deny the accusations being issued against me,” he said in his statement. “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.”
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,” the soccer player wrote in a second, follow-up tweet.
My clear conscious will thereby allow me to await with tranquillity the results of any and all investigations.
— Cristiano Ronaldo (@Cristiano) October 3, 2018
Ronaldo seemed to also address the allegations during an Instagram live stream late Friday, Sept. 28.
“What they said today, fake — fake news,” he said. “They want to promote by my name. It’s normal. They want to be famous — to say my name. Yeah but it’s part of the job. I’m (a) happy man and all, all good.”
Mayorga reportedly received a settlement previously, but she asking in her new lawsuit that the previous settlement and the nondisclosure agreement she signed to be voided.
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