The world’s highest-paid soccer star, Cristiano Ronaldo, is fuming that Vanity Fair put him on the cover in tight underpants with rival player Didier Drogba.
Team Real Madrid stud Ronaldo is furious that after he stripped down to his underpants and showed off his ripped muscles for photographer Annie Leibovitz, the magazine bosses also ran a photo of Chelsea FC striker Drogba on the cover.
Rivalry between two of the world’s best players is strong, and Ronaldo’s team, Portugal, will take on Drogba’s Ivory Coast in their opening World Cup match June 15.
One source told us that Ronaldo — who earns $30 million a year and was recently linked to curvy beauty Kim Kardashian — has complained Vanity Fair widely used his image to market its June issue. “Ronaldo is freaking out,” the source said. “He says he wants to sue Vanity Fair for using his image to promote the issue everywhere.
“Even though this is pretty standard practice in the magazine world, he and his managers insist only they have control of his image and where it can be used.
“But no legal action has been launched, and there are whispers that what really upset Ronaldo was that, having stripped off to his underpants for the shoot in Madrid, he didn’t envisage sharing the cover with another player photographed in Milan.”
Ronaldo, 25, became the highest-paid soccer player in the world last June when Real Madrid bought him from Manchester United for a record-breaking $130 million.
But despite being one of the world’s most popular players, Ronaldo, once linked to Paris Hilton, was blasted as “vain” by ex Nereida Gallardo, who told Britain’s News of the World in 2008: “He likes his body to be smooth all over and would even use a hair-removal cream. He would also use tubs of moisturizer, coating every part of his body . . . His house is full of mirrors so he’s always walking around glancing at himself.”
Vanity Fair declined to comment, and Ronaldo’s rep did not get back to us.