After years of claims of tax evasion that have rocked the soccer world, Spanish authorities have allegedly now fingered the sport’s golden boy. Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo has been accused of participating in a tax evasion scheme to hide more nearly €150 million ($161 million U.S.) from the tax man.
The 31-year-old Portuguese forward, born Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro, is currently one of the world’s most recognizable stars, so much so that he’s joined the “one name club” with most fans referring to him simply as Ronaldo. He was named after another famous icon: Hollywood movie star and two-term U.S. President Ronald Reagan (I’m not kidding).
At age 18, Ronaldo signed with Manchester United, leading the squad to numerous championships, including three Premier League titles. Increasingly unhappy at United, he moved to Real Madrid in 2009 following a multimillion-dollar deal. Ronaldo’s new club quickly found that he was worth the price as he continued to rack up honors. Last year, he became the all-time leader in goals scored for Real Madrid; the same year, ESPN named him the “World’s Most Famous Athlete” as he bested La Liga rival Lionel Messi who came in 3rd. According to ESPN, Ronaldo said about his rival, “It’s opinions. Maybe in your opinion Messi is better than me. But in my mind I am better than him. So it’s simple.”
Now, Ronaldo has something other than soccer to compare with Messi: allegations that he has committed tax fraud. In July of this year, a Spanish court found Messi guilty of tax fraud and sentenced him to 21 months in prison. Messi has continued to insist that he’s done nothing wrong and has vowed an appeal.
The allegations against Ronaldo, which have not been officially confirmed by Spanish authorities, have been touted by several European media outlets, including Germany’s Der Spiegel. Those outlets allege that Ronaldo avoided paying taxes by funneling income related to image rights (meaning his likeness, the very thing that Ronaldo capitalizes on) through a series of offshore companies set up by Gestifute, the agency which represents Ronaldo. If that arrangement sounds vaguely familiar, it is: the use of separate entities to hide income tied to image rights is the basis of accusations against Messi – ditto for fellow soccer stars Samuel Eto’o and Neymar.
Ronaldo’s agency, Gestifute, has explicitly denied the charges, going so far as to post a statement on the agency’s website they claim has been issued by the Spanish Tax Agency confirming that Ronaldo is current with his tax obligations. Gestifute went on to say on the site that Ronaldo “never has been involved in any conflict with the tax authorities of any country.”
The charges of impropriety are tied to “Football Leaks” – think the Panama Papers but hyper-focused on soccer players. According to Der Spiegel, the leaks allowed the news agency access to “a huge data set” measuring about 1.9 terabytes (a terabyte is equal to 1,000 gigabytes). The data consists of 18.6 million documents, including, the claim is, original contracts of soccer players, as well as “secret sub-agreements, e-mails, Excel tables and Word files.” Over the past month, a number of European journalists have combed through the data; you can see some of what has been claimed to have been uncovered here.
Despite the purported leaks, Ronaldo’s club, Real Madrid, issued a stern statement in defense of their star player on their website, saying:
In view of the stories published over recent days and in consideration of the certificate issued by the Spanish Tax Agency which confirms that our player Cristiano Ronaldo is up to date with all of his tax obligations, Real Madrid C. F. call for the utmost respect to be shown towards Cristiano Ronaldo, whose conduct has been absolutely exemplary throughout all of his time at our club.
Ronaldo has not publicly addressed the story on his social media, instead focusing on the release of his fragrance and bantering with basketball’s Dwyane Wade in a meme battle.
Currently, Ronaldo tops the Forbes’ list of the World’s Highest Paid Athletes with an estimated paycheck of $88 million, ahead of Messi (basketball “King” and NBA MVP LeBron James, tennis player Roger Federer, and basketball star Kevin Durant round out the top five).
