KOMPAS.com - Cristiano
Ronaldo has become the father of a baby boy according to an
extraordinary announcement on his Facebook page. The shock message,
which was also posted on the 25-year- old former Manchester United
star's Twitter account, indicated that he would bring up the child
without the unnamed mother.
The footballer is currently dating
Russian underwear model Irina Shayk, but the baby's mother is said to
be American. Ronaldo spent last summer in Los Angeles and Miami after
signing for Real Madrid from Manchester United for a record £80million.
The
world's most expensive and arguably most famous footballer said his son
would be kept under his ' exclusive guardianship', leading to questions
about why the mother has given him up.
The baby is thought
likely to be brought up by Ronaldo's family in his native Portugal.
Ronaldo, whose poor World Cup campaign came to an end last week when
Portugal were knocked out by Spain, is now concentrating again on club
football.
But his gruelling training regime and fixtures at Real
Madrid, where he earns £180,000 a week, combined with a love of the
high life, make it all but impossible to imagine him being a single
parent.
That makes it likely that the child's upbringing will
have plenty of input from Ronaldo's formidable mother Dolores. The
announcement of the birth was made on the internet in the early hours
of yesterday morning.
It said: 'It is with great joy and emotion that I inform I have recently become father to a baby boy.
'As
agreed with the baby's mother, who prefers to have her identity kept
confidential, my son will be under my exclusive guardianship.'
Last
night, more than 18 hours after the messages first appeared and after
40,000 fans had registered their congratulations on Facebook, Ronaldo's
agent confirmed the story, saying: 'Yes, it's true. We make no further
comment.'
It is not known whether the footballer had a fling
with the woman in question or whether she had the child through a
'Ricky Martin'- style arrangement.
The singer became a father to twins with help from a surrogate mother in 2008.
Yesterday
a Portuguese newspaper, Correio da Manha, said Ronaldo's son was born
in early June. A family friend apparently told the newspaper that the
player's mother and sisters Elma and Katia were preparing the
documentation to take the child to Portugal.
However, last night
it was understood that the baby is already in Portugal. Ronaldo has
been linked to scores of beautiful women in the past few years.
He
was linked with tennis player Maria Sharapova, 23, in 2006, and Big
Brother star Imogen Thomas, 26, in 2008. Last year he was romantically
linked with Paris Hilton, 29, in June and with Kim Kardashian, 29, in
April of this year.
If it is true that the baby was born in
June, it must have been conceived around September last year when
21-year-old Italian Raffaella Fico claimed to be dating the footballer.
Ronaldo
took her to an Elton John concert in Lisbon in June 2009. Months later,
she claimed she was still dating the star and had met his family, but
Ronaldo never commented on the supposed relationship. The striker is
said to be madly in love with current girlfriend Irina.
Last
month they were enjoying a five-day pre-World Cup break on a £50,000
a-week yacht off the coast of Corsica, with the 5ft 10in green-eyed
beauty telling friends Ronaldo wanted to have children with her.
Only
two months ago, Ronaldo was at the centre of a pregnancy riddle
involving a stunning Spanish model. Former Miss Spain Maria Jose Suarez
was linked to the star after splitting with her boyfriend, tennis
player Feliciano Lopez, when she discovered she was pregnant.
The
footballer was named in the media as her secret lover, sparking
speculation he was the father of the child. But she denied sleeping
with Ronaldo and last week it emerged she had lost her baby.
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