Cristiano Ronaldo said that what happened between him and Kathryn Mayorga had been consensual

Lawyers for Cristiano Ronaldo have conceded for the first time that the footballer paid $375,000 to a woman who accused him of raping her in a Las Vegas hotel room the day after his world-record move from Manchester United to Real Madrid was announced.

The Portuguese forward, who now plays in Italy, has insisted that what happened between him and Kathryn Mayorga in his penthouse suite at the Palms Hotel and Casino in 2009 was consensual. When she filed a lawsuit last year alleging he had raped her and then dispatched “fixers” to obstruct the investigation and exploit her vulnerable emotional state by buying her silence, Mr Ronaldo dismissed it as “fake news”.

However, newly filed court documents show he did strike a six-figure settlement