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Report: Las Vegas police seeking Ronaldo's DNA sample

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Las Vegas police recently requested a DNA sample from Cristiano Ronaldo as part of an ongoing investigation into an alleged 2009 rape, reports the Wall Street Journal's Zusha Elinson, citing a law-enforcement official with knowledge of the situation.

Police found DNA that didn't belong to Nevada native Kathryn Mayorga on the dress she wore the night of the incident, the law-enforcement official told Elinson. The warrant would instruct Italian authorities to deliver the sample to Las Vegas and allow local police to determine whether the DNA in question is Ronaldo's.

Authorities issued the warrant to Italian court because Ronaldo resides there. He joined Juventus last summer.

Ronaldo's attorney, Peter S. Christiansen, reiterated the player's innocence in a statement obtained by BBC Sport correspondent Dan Roan on Thursday.

"Mr. Ronaldo has always maintained, as he does today, that what occurred in Las Vegas in 2009 was consensual in nature," Christiansen wrote, "so it is not surprising that DNA would be present, nor that the police would make this very standard request as part of their investigation."

Mayorga went public with her story in an interview with Der Spiegel in September, saying the Portuguese international raped her in a Las Vegas hotel room after a chance meeting in June 2009. Ronaldo was a Real Madrid player at the time.

The 33-year-old's lawyer confirmed that Ronaldo and Mayorga reached a $375,000 settlement in 2010 as part of a non-disclosure agreement.

Central to Der Spiegel's account is a questionnaire in which Ronaldo reportedly admits that Mayorga told him "no" and "stop" multiple times.

Mayorga, now 34, reported to police that she'd been raped and received a medical examination. She says she initially chose not to name the person who committed the alleged assault for fear of retribution.

However, Mayorga's lawyers are pursuing monetary damages and seeking to void the non-disclosure agreement on the grounds that she was legally incompetent to agree to a settlement. The civil lawsuit accuses Ronaldo and his representatives of conspiracy, coercion and fraud, defamation, battery, breach of contract, and negligence, according to The Associated Press.

Las Vegas police reopened their investigation into the case shortly after Der Spiegel published its report.

There's no statute of limitations on sexual assault charges in the state of Nevada.

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