May 6, 2008 | Celeb Watch

Soccer idol's transexual hooker scandal

World Cup legend Ronaldo Luis Nazário de Lima claims he was stunned when the feminine hookers he was partying with turned out to have penises.

The Brazilian soccer idol met the three transexuals at a nightclub in his home city of Rio de Janeiro. When he took them to a hotel for some fun, he discovered a little more (down there) than he bargained for. 

Ronaldo got mad at the deception and allegedly threatened to hit one of the ladies; he then offered each of them $600 to get out of his room and keep quiet about the whole incident.

But Andrea – whose real name is André – apparently wanted a little more. She demanded $30,000 in “hush money,” warning: "I'll go to the press if you don’t pay up, honey."

Things were getting out of control, so Ronaldo called the police. Of course, he relied on the oldest excuse in the book for his night out with the boys: he blamed it all on a psychological problem caused by a bad knee injury. [more]

A police chief sided with the footballer because Andrea left the station without being fully questioned and not because Ronaldo was a Brazilian hero for scoring both goals in their 2002 World Cup win over Germany.

"Ronaldo just wanted to have fun and meet people outside his usual environment," the cop added. "But he committed no crime at all – it was immoral at worst."

And though prostitution is not illegal in Brazil, Ronaldo may not find this incident easy to play down because of his choice of playmates. Soccer is considered a very masculine sport. 

"Fans here aren't shocked by footballers going with prostitutes," said Roberto da Matta, an anthropologist. "But many will question the player’s masculinity."

"The football milieu here really distances itself from any hint of homosexuality, despite it being accepted in society at large," said Sócrates Brasileiro Sampaio de Souza Vieira de Oliveira, a former soccer star who is also a doctor and a soccer columnist and a man with a very long name.

When a director of a soccer team in São Paulo accused a player of being gay, the director was sued for slander. The judge dismissed the case arguing that soccer was a "virile game" and "not homosexual."

You'd think that men who make a living playing with balls would be okay with men playing with, well, balls.