In April 2008, a man was reported to the Rio de Janeiro police for threatening three prostitutes. So the story goes, he solicited them in one of the city’s less salubrious areas, took them back to a motel and, after discovering that they were, in fact, pre-op trans sex workers, lost his rag and screamed blue murder.
Although the case was later dropped when it appeared he’d been a victim of extortion, the escapade cost him $4.8 million in lost endorsements, led to a temporary break in his engagement to his long-term partner, and saw him savagely criticised and satirised by the Brazilian media. His fans, though, didn’t give a toss. They only cared that he was recovering from knee surgery and, all being well, would soon don club colours in his homeland.