Real Madrid forward Cristiano Ronaldo wants to leave the club and Spain after being accused of committing tax fraud in the country, a report in Portuguese sports daily A Bola said today.

The newspaper said its story was based on a reliable source and that the 32-year-old four-time world player of the year had already made up his mind to ask the club for a transfer.

It said that Ronaldo was "deeply disenchanted" with the allegations against him.

Record, another sports daily, carried a similar story.

Spanish prosecutors have filed a lawsuit against the player accusing him of defrauding tax authorities of €14.7 million by hiding his image rights income between 2011 and 2014. Ronaldo has denied any wrongdoing.

Real Madrid said on Thursday they were confident the Portuguese forward had acted legally.

Ronaldo led Real Madrid to their 12th European Cup earlier this month after scoring two goals in a 4-1 victory over Juventus in the Champions League final, becoming the tournament's top scorer.

Ronaldo, Portugal's all-time leading scorer, is the latest in a long line of soccer players in Spain – among them Barcelona's Lionel Messi and Neymar – to be caught up in cases over tax or transfers.

Ronaldo has completed eight seasons at Real Madrid since joining them from Manchester United in 2009 for a then world record fee of €96 million.

During that time, they have won the Champions League three times and La Liga twice. In November, he agreed to extend his contract until 2021.

He is currently at the Confederations Cup in Russia with the Portuguese national team where his team mate Andre Silva said that Ronaldo was motivated for the tournament.

"All I can say is that he is motivated, focused on the national team and encouraging us on to win the tournament," he told a news conference in Kazan, where Portugal face Mexico on Sunday.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.