Italian Public Prosecutor Office accused the football superstar Cristiano Ronaldo’s elder brother Hugo dos Santos Aveiro of fraud, said a report by La Repubblica, an Italian newspaper.
According to the report, Hugo was selling jerseys with the image and signature of Ronaldo with necessary license and permission. He will have to undergo a legal trial for his alleged involvement in this jersey fraud.
Italian Public Prosecutor’s Office pointed out that Hugo sold more than 13 thousand fake Juventus shirts under the name and number of the Ronaldo during his stint at Juventus from 2018 to 2021.
The investigation in this case began in 2019 and objective was to determine whether there was any fraud against the company ‘Pegasso’.
Ronaldo had signed a deal with Pegasso for the online selling of sports clothing for the Serie A club Juventus. The football superstar was signed by Juventus in 2018 for 100 million euros from Real Madrid.
Prosecution said that the shirts were manufactured without their copyrights and were very identical to the originals produced by Adidas.
The only thing that differentiates the original and pirated jersey was the ‘CR7 Museum’ logo on the front of those jerseys, which is managed exclusively by Ronaldo’s brother.
The first date for the court proceeding in the Hugo’s case is set for June 20, 2023.
In 2013, the trademark CR7 mix of his initial and jersey number began advertising a line of branded underwear. Slowly, shoes, fragrances and apparel began to roll out under the CR7 trademark.
However, Nike is Ronaldo’s main sponsor, which pays him more than $20 million every year. Ronaldo also has a life-time contract with Nike making him the third player in the world to have such a prestige contract with Nike after Michael Jordan and LeBron James.
Ronaldo also receives around $45 million per year in advertising revenue from various other companies like Altice, Herballife, DAZN, MTG, Clear Shampoo, Abbott and Unilever.
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