Cristiano Ronaldo and the £250m gamble: Uncomfortable rape allegations are glossed over as Juventus risk it all for a seat at Europe's top table

As telling dailymail.co.uk

The ways Italy has found to prove that its new adoptive son must be innocent of the rape allegations being levelled against him appear to know no bounds.

A commentator for Il Giornale, a newspaper owned by the Berlusconi family, concluded on the basis of an analysis of Cristiano Ronaldo's signature that he was 'ambitious and determined but in harmony with himself'.

Corriere della Sera has written of 'leftist feminist militants'. Natali Aspesi said in the Huffington Post that she could not see someone as rich and handsome committing such a crime.

The huge images of Ronaldo modelling underwear currently adorning sites in Turin give the impression of a club convinced that none of this mud will possibly stick. He is 'più forte del fango' ('stronger than mud') said Tuttosport recently.

But, as Ronaldo returns this week in the Champions League to Old Trafford, where he first made his name, many in the wider world are uncomfortable about him, the non-disclosure agreement (NDA) he admits he signed with Kathryn Mayorga and the tone of his response to her claims.