Famous footballer Cristiano Ronaldo got himself in quite a bit of trouble in Lisbon over the weekend. The Real Madrid player smashed in the window of a car with a teenager inside. The girl claims to have been there simply to get Ronaldo’s autograph, but he thinks he was being set up – which sounds very likely. He says the girl has been parked outside his home for days, and that she was with a man who’s variously indentified as a freelance writer and/or paparazzo.

The girl had some cuts on her and went to the hospital – posing for a photo in her hospital gown which was given and/or sold to a photo agency and used in the Daily Mail’s article. Ronaldo apologized for losing his temper, but it sounds like he has a believable defense.

This is the scene of the damage after Cristiano Ronaldo smashed a car window as he lashed out in fury at a teenage girl videoing him in the street. The 24-year-old former Manchester United star kicked the window sending shards of glass into 17-year-old student Sara Pardal, it was claimed by Portuguese media. Sara was treated in hospital for her alleged injuries and later reported the attack to the police. The teenager reportedly told police she was sat in the car outside Ronaldo’s Lisbon apartment because she is a fan and wanted an autograph.

The FIFA World Player of the Year has admitted kicking the car in a rage – but insisted the girl was working with a paparazzi photographer. He has accused her of exaggerating her injuries. Ronaldo, who has just completed his £80 million move from Manchester United to Real Madrid, said: ‘I regret what I did, but I can’t promise that I would not react in the same way again in the same circumstances.’

Ronaldo was heading to an Elton John concert in the Portuguese capital with his mum Dolores Aveiro, 54, sisters Elma and Catia, and a group of friends. The star claims the girl was with a photographer who had been stalking him, ‘standing for days on end in front of my house, eating yogurt and waiting for anything newsworthy to happen.’ He says the photographer and the girl had followed him to his house from the Ritz Hotel. When he spotted the girl filming him, he leapt out of his £200,000 Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano in a rage and kicked the car. Ronaldo said: ‘This persecution caused my mother to be so disturbed and upset that I had to stop my car to try to convince them to leave us in peace.’

Portuguese newspaper Correio da Manha described the girl as a fan who had been trying to get an autograph of Elton John at the Ritz, then went to Ronaldo’s house hoping to meet the footballer. But rival daily 24 Horas said she was in the car with freelance photographer Hugo Martins, 35. Sara went to the Sao Jose Hospital for treatment to cuts on her arm, arriving at around 11pm on Sunday night.

If state prosecutors decide Ronaldo has a case to answer, he could face charges of wounding or destroying property. He could be ordered to pay compensation to his victim, who could also pursue a civil claim. Ronaldo claims the photographer later offered to sell him a video of the incident.

[From the Daily Mail]

The Daily Mail’s article is really long and remarkably thorough, but they document all of Ronaldo’s claims, including a long spiel about the teenager and her photographer companion trying to sell him the tape, which he claims to have refused to do out of basic ethics. Ronaldo also says he knows someone will pay for it and it will get out there, but he’s not going to be the one to do it.

It sounds like a set-up to me. Even if she was a fan, why was this girl “standing for days on end in front of [Ronaldo’s] house, eating yogurt and waiting for anything newsworthy to happen”? If nothing else, she was clearly stalking and harassing him. But it sounds like more than anything she was baiting him. I doubt she’s a fan. Hopefully the authorities will see through this crap and charge the teenager and her photographer friend instead.

Here’s Cristiano Ronaldo outside Villa nightclub in Los Angeles on June 16th. Images thanks to WENN.com .