Cristiano Ronaldo’s lawyer has confirmed authorities in Las Vegas have issued a warrant to collect DNA from the football star in the wake of allegations he raped a woman in the city in 2009.

“Mr Ronaldo has always maintained, as he does today, that what occurred in Las Vegas in 2009 was consensual in nature, 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,” Ronaldo’s lawyer, Peter S Christiansen, said in a statement to the BBC. The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department later confirmed to the Guardian that it had submitted a request for a DNA sample to authorities in Italy, where Ronaldo plays for Juventus.

Ronaldo is the subject of a criminal investigation by Las Vegas police and a separate civil action after the allegations by Kathryn Mayorga, who came forward with her story last year. She claims the Portugal star initially used “fixers” to stop her pursuing criminal charges, including paying her $375,000 to keep quiet. In the past, Ronaldo’s lawyer has not denied his client reached an agreement with Mayorga, who says she came forward with her story in the wake of the #MeToo movement. “This agreement is by no means a confession of guilt,” Christiansen said in October 2018.

Mayorga’s lawyers, Leslie Mark Stovall and Larissa Drohobyczer, said on Thursday they had previously been unaware of the DNA warrant.

Ronaldo has denied Mayorga’s allegations. “I firmly deny the accusations being issued against me,” he said in October 2018. “Rape is an abominable crime that goes against everything that I am and believe in. Keen as I may be to clear my name, I refuse to feed the media spectacle created by people seeking to promote themselves at my expense. My clear conscious [sic] will thereby allow me to await with tranquillity the results of any and all investigations.”

The 33-year-old Ronaldo is one of the most famous athletes in the world. He is a five-time winner of the Ballon d’Or, an annual award for the best footballer in the world. He is also a national hero in Portugal, and led his country to the European Championship title in 2016.