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A scandal involving Ronaldo and three cross-dressing prostitutes has cost him an advertising contract worth $4.8 million a year, with the mobile phone company TIM. According to Brazilian daily O Globo, there was a clause in the contract where it stated that the contract will be cancelled if, for any reason the player communicated a negative image. The report said that Ronaldo had already received $1.8 million from this contract in 2008 and had about $3 million to collect before the end of the year.
A few media reports also suggest that because of this scandal, Ronaldo might even lose the lifetime contract that he has with the US sports apparel firm Nike. However, when asked he denied that he had a chance to lose the contracts. He said that he would have to be proved guilty in the court first, for any kind of offense.
Prostitution is legal in Brazil, so he has not yet been accused of any crime but he landed in a police station on Monday because of a fight with a cross-dresser who accused Ronaldo of not wanting to pay for a night of sex. According to the transvestite’s version of the story, Ronaldo refused to pay the prostitutes after he picked them up from the upscale neighborhood of Barra de Tijuca in Rio De Janeiro and subsequently had sex in the motel. The transvestite further said that Ronaldo had sent him to buy cocaine in a near-by town. But this is being totally denied by Ronaldo. Presently, Ronaldo is in Brazil recovering from a knee injury and he will be out of action till early 2009.
