The sums of money football superstars make are so large that for most of us they remain abstract. Their wealth becomes tangible in incidents like these: Cristiano Ronaldo did not even notice that he was relieved by hundreds of thousands.
There are people who literally don’t have to pay attention to their money. Portugal’s superstar Cristiano Ronaldo is definitely one of them, as this incident shows. The multiple world footballer of the year and one of the world’s highest paid professionals has been cheated out of hundreds of thousands of euros – and he apparently didn’t even notice. (Paid content).
The fraud was discovered in 2017, but only now became known. According to this, a Portuguese travel agent booked fictitious trips from the accounts of Ronaldo and other Portuguese football stars over a period of three years. In the name of the 36-year-old who has just switched to Manchester United, there are said to have been 200 trips that he never made. The damage is said to have totaled 288,000 euros for Ronaldo alone.
Cristiano Ronaldo: Carelessly handed over documents
However, the amounts appear to have been too small to be noticed by CR7. According to the public prosecutor’s office, he had carelessly given the perpetrator documents, including credit card numbers and passwords. It was only when the superstar’s credit card expired that the fraud was exposed, according to the report in the Portuguese newspaper.
The now 53-year-old is said to have ripped off Ronaldo and Co. in the years 2007 to 2010. For a while she was still able to conceal her machinations, but finally she was exposed. In 2017, the travel agent was sentenced to four years probation by a court in Porto, it is said. In total, she is said to have stolen around 350,000 euros with her scam. She’ll have to nibble on that: the woman has to pay back the money.
Ronaldo will probably hardly have noticed these repayments either. The European champion from 2016 earns almost double the total amount of damage at his current club (rumored 560,000 euros) – per week.
I have been working in the news industry for over 6 years, first as a reporter and now as an editor. I have covered politics extensively, and my work has appeared in major newspapers and online news outlets around the world. In addition to my writing, I also contribute regularly to 24 Hours World.
