REAL Madrid launched a defense of forward Cristiano Ronaldo on Tuesday, demanding respect for the three-time World Player of the Year amid allegations he hid millions of euros earned from image rights in tax havens.

    “In light of the information published and the certificate released by the Spanish tax agency, which shows our player Cristiano Ronaldo is up to date with all his tax obligations, Real Madrid demand the maximum respect for a player like Ronaldo,” Madrid said in a statement.

    An international consortium of media organizations Friday claimed that a huge data leak involving 18 million documents showed the skipper hid 150 million euros (US$160 million) from image rights. Ronaldo strongly denied the claims in a statement via Gestifute, the firm controlled by his agent Jorge Mendes.

    Spanish newspaper El Mundo also accused defenders Pepe and Fabio Coentrao, both clients of Mendes, of selling their image rights to companies in the British Virgin Islands and Panama respectively for just one euro.

    Pepe was reported to have earned 3.7 million euros in image rights since signing for Madrid in 2007 and Coentrao 3.5 million since 2011.(SD-Agencies)