In what must have been today’s VIP-media-event-that-wasn’t, Real Madrid striker Cristiano Ronaldo showed the kind of fancy-footwork that has taken him (and his golden boots) into the history books.
Despite a possé of world press reporters and their cameras posted outside the Madrid courthouse where Ronaldo faced questions over an ongoing tax probe, the 32-year-old ‘legend in his own lifetime’ managed to skip in and out of the building without once being seen.
After a 90-minute audience with judge Mónica Goméz Ferrer, Ronaldo had been expected to emerge to make a statement. He didn’t. Instead frustrated media outlets received a block email an hour later – basically repeating the bottom line of what Ronaldo and his representatives have always said: “There has never been any attempt to avoid paying tax”.
According to the Spanish press, this morning’s hearing was “tense” with Ronaldo “always affirming that he had acted within the law”, and that if it wasn’t for who he is, the case may never have been brought.
Ronaldo’s statement to the press was also simple and clear-cut: this is the last time the world’s highest paid athlete wants to talk publicly about the probe into his tax affairs until it has reached a conclusion.
As has been repeated ad infinitum, Ronaldo stands accused of consciously evading €14.7 million in tax on image rights income generated in Spain between the years 2011-2015 (click here).
The case brought by Spanish tax authorities is just one of a number that been focusing on tax payments by players contracted to national football clubs.
