Ronaldo Misses Penalty For Juve, Faces Multi-Million Tax Fraud Fine
22nd January 2019
The five-time Ballon d'Or winner missed numerous chances with Chievo goalkeeper Stefano Sorrentino denying Ronaldo, who has scored 14 times in the league, a first goal from the spot this season
- Cristiano Ronaldo missed a penalty but Italian league leaders Juventus eased past bottom club Chievo 3-0 to pull nine points clear on top of Serie A on Monday
- Portuguese superstar Ronaldo had sealed Juventus's first title of the season -- a record eighth Italian Super Cup trophy against AC Milan last Wednesday in Saudi Arabia
- But the 33-year-old was off-form in the first league game after a three-week winter break and on the eve of his return to Madrid where he will appear in court for tax fraud charges dating back to his time with Real Madrid
MILAN, Italy- Cristiano
Ronaldo missed a penalty but Italian league leaders Juventus eased past bottom
club Chievo 3-0 to pull nine points clear on top of Serie A on Monday as AC
Milan returned to the Champions League berths with a 2-0 win in Genoa.
Portuguese superstar Ronaldo had sealed Juventus's first
title of the season -- a record eighth Italian Super Cup trophy against AC
Milan last Wednesday in Saudi Arabia.
But the 33-year-old was off-form in the first league game
after a three-week winter break and on the eve of his return to Madrid where he
will appear in court for tax fraud charges dating back to his time with Real
Madrid.
The five-time Ballon d'Or winner missed numerous chances
with Chievo goalkeeper Stefano Sorrentino denying Ronaldo, who has scored 14
times in the league, a first goal from the spot this season.
But Juventus were never worried by Chievo with Douglas Costa
and Emre Can scoring in the first half and Daniele Rugani heading in a third
six minutes from time.
"I don't think it's the first time it has happened in
his career," said coach Massimiliano Allegri of Ronaldo's miss, "the
important thing is that the team won.
"He was looking for a goal, but in the first half he
tried too hard, he did better in the second half.
"It was a pleasant game," continued Allegri.
"The team had a good match, another fundamental success in the run-up to
the Scudetto."
Chievo started their season with a 3-2 defeat to Juventus in
Verona during which Sorrentino was knocked unconscious after colliding with
Ronaldo.
But 'The Flying Donkeys' -- who had been deducted three points
for false accounting -- ended 2018 with their first win and had lost just one
of the previous eight games holding Napoli, Lazio and Inter Milan.
Brazilian winger Costa got Juventus off the mark with a
stunning solo run from midfield after 13 minutes.
Paulo Dybala set up Can for the German international’s first
goal since moving from Liverpool last summer just before the break.
Juventus were awarded a penalty for a Mattia Bani handball
with 39-year-old Sorrentino clearing having also earlier denied Alex Sandro's
close-range header.
Ronaldo missed two more chances before Rugani headed in a
Federico Bernardeschi free kick to keep unbeaten Juventus, with 56 points from
20 games, on track for an eighth consecutive Scudetto.
Second-placed Napoli beat Lazio 2-1 on Sunday, with the
Roman club now two games without a win before hosting Juventus next weekend.
Cup defeat
Earlier Fabio Borini and Suso scored late as AC Milan
bounced back from their Super Cup defeat to reclaim fourth spot.
Gennaro Gattuso's side occupy the final Champions League
berth, overtaking Roma who are one point behind in fifth and Lazio, who are a
further point behind in sixth.
Just four points separate Milan and eighth-placed Sampdoria
in a tight race to qualify for Europe's premier club competition.
Gattuso's side -- unsettled by their defeat in Saudi Arabia
and mounting speculation surrounding Argentine striker Gonzalo Higuain's loan
move to Chelsea -- struggled early against Genoa, who are in 14th position
following their 10th defeat of the season.
Gattuso left Higuain out of his squad after saying he was
not "mentally ready" while Genoa's Krzysztof Piatek, who has scored
13 goals this season and is set to replace Higuain at Milan, was suspended.
Milan goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma pulled off key saves
and new Brazilian signing Lucas Paqueta also impressing as his long range
volley rattled the post just before the break.
However Milan got into their stride as the game edged into
its final period, with Andrea Conti setting up Borini to tap in his first
league goal this season with 18 minutes left.
Donnarumma then got his hand to a powerful Veloso strike
before Patrick Cutrone sent Suso free on the counter attack, the Spaniard
shaking off Genoa's defenders to shoot home the decisive goal from an angle 10
minutes later.
Cristiano Ronaldo is returning to Madrid for a court date on
Tuesday in which he could be fined 18.8 million euros ($21.4 million) for tax
fraud as part of a deal reached with the Spanish taxman.
As part of an agreement arranged in June with the former
Real Madrid hero's lawyers, prosecutors are also asking that the Portuguese
attacker, who last summer left the Spanish capital for Italian champions
Juventus, be handed a 23-month jail sentence.
However Ronaldo would not spend a day in prison as sentences
of up to two years are generally not enforced in Spain for first-time offenders
in non-violent crimes.
The hearing, due to start at 9:50 am (0850 GMT), is expected
to last just a few minutes as the deal is officially presented to the judge.
He in turn will give the final sentence on Tuesday or the
coming days, according to a spokesman for the court in northern Madrid.
Ronaldo will not be given special treatment when he arrives
and will have to climb up the courthouse steps amid a likely media scrum
despite the five-time Ballon d'Or winner's lawyers asking he be allowed to
enter the building by car to avoid the spotlight.
The court president refused the request, saying that despite
his "great fame", he wouldn't "compromise security" at the
building, according to a court document.
His request to appear via videoconference was also denied.
Rape accusation
Madrid prosecutors opened a probe into Ronaldo in June 2017
and he was questioned in July that same year.
"I have never hidden anything, nor have I had the
intention of evading taxes," he told the court then, according to a
statement from the sports agency which represents him, Gestifute.
Prosecutors accuse him of having used companies in low-tax
foreign jurisdictions -- notably the British Virgin Islands and Ireland -- to
avoid having to pay the tax due in Spain on his image rights between 2011 and
2014.
His lawyers said there had been a difference in
interpretation of what was and was not taxable in Spain.
The deal between Spain's taxman and his lawyers has allowed
Ronaldo to avoid having to sit through a long trial that could have damaged his
image and seen him handed a heftier sentence.
Ronaldo is not the only footballer to have fallen foul of
Spain's tax authorities.
Barcelona's Lionel Messi, once Ronaldo's big La Liga
rival, paid a two-million-euro fine in 2016 in his own tax wrangle and
received a 21-month jail term.
The prison sentence was later reduced to a further fine of
252,000 euros, equivalent to 400 euros per day of the original term.
But Ronaldo's legal wrangles won't be over after a probe was
opened in the United States in October after a former American model accused
him of raping her in Las Vegas in 2009.
Police in the western US city recently asked Italian
authorities for a DNA sample from the footballer.
Ronaldo has always strenuously denied the accusations.
In a New Year's Eve interview with Portuguese sports daily
Record, he said he had a "calm conscience" and was "confident
that everything will very soon be clarified".