Scammed by Cristiano Ronaldo's brother. This is how entrepreneur Rocco Valenti, who has years of experience in marketing the merchandising of football teams like Milan, Inter and Barcelona, defines himself in his story to the judges. It's all about the t-shirts from the museum dedicated to Cr7 on Madeira, the Portuguese island off the coast of Morocco which gave birth to the five-time Ballon d'Or. Turin prosecutor Laura Longo is leading the prosecution, according to which Ronaldo's brother, – Hugo Dinarte Santos Aveiro, 45, defended by lawyer Gregoria Cavalla – allegedly deceived Valenti from July 2019, when the entrepreneur signed a contract with the company Mussara Gestao de Espacos e Eventos LDA”, to which the brand belongs . CR7 Museum and of which Ronaldo's brother was the legal representative. The alleged target? Get t-shirts at a sale price. In July 2018, when the Portuguese striker had just arrived at Juventus and enthusiasm for him was skyrocketing.
Adidas’ accusation: “Shirts too similar to ours”
“The agreement allowed me to produce jerseys with the CR7Museu brand, signature, number, name and crest of the player. It cost me 500 thousand euros, plus 150 thousand paid to a Spanish intermediary company that monitored the quality of the products,” Valenti said when questioned by prosecutor Elisa Buffa before judge Alessandra Salvadori.. Production was well underway when the problems began: “We produced the first 13,000 t-shirts. Shortly after, we were told that Adidas objected because they were too similar to theirs. [quelle ufficiali, ndr]» adds Valenti. Given the situation, the entrepreneur sells the shirts for 4.50 euros each to a company that, according to Valenti, should have sent them to the pulp mill. “We paid 5 thousand euros for the waste. And they only gave us back 59 thousand euros.”
The plot repeats itself
Wrong shirts they were obviously not wasted, since a few days later they were put on sale by the Madeira Museum, at a price of 40 euros each. To compensate, Valenti, defended by lawyer Roberto Capra, then began producing other jerseys, with different graphics. The plot seems to be repeating itself, however, given that this time it was Juventus who intervened, suing them for unfair competition, taking advantage of the fact that no one would have contacted the Juventus club to discuss the design of the uniforms . A pattern that Valenti now fears will also happen with Cr7 dolls, already manufactured and ready to be sold for years. “I bought them, but they’re all sitting in the warehouse gathering dust.”
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