The Brazil star is in his home country recovering from a cruciate ligament injury and was recently caught up in a scandal involving three transvestites.

Two of the three cross-dressing prostitutes involved have admitted lying about having sex and using drugs with Ronaldo, but the 31-year-old knows the incident will be with him for the rest of his life.

"Yes, it will stay with me," he told Spanish sports daily AS. "Without a doubt.

"It was a mistake I made. I did wrong and every day I will think about it.

"It affected me a lot personally, but I haven't given up my desire to return to playing football.

"I understand that there is now a stain on my personal reputation, but in the professional arena I have done much for football, for sport, for my country.

"It was a stupid act on my part and a big mistake. I regret it every day.

"The moment I return to playing and scoring goals all this will be forgotten."

Police are investigating claims by Ronaldo that one of the transvestites, Andre Luiz Ribeiro Albertini, known as Andreia Albertini, sought to extort money from him.

Two of them accepted pay-offs of 1,000 reais, but Ronaldo has claimed the third, Albertini, demanded 50,000 reais and threatened to post a video on the internet if he was not paid.

The three-time world player of the year has now moved to end speculation, revealing exactly what happened.

"The truth is that I was out to dinner with friends," added Ronaldo. "I left the restaurant that we were in around 4.30 in the morning and I committed a stupid act.

"I had argued with my girlfriend, I was a bit sad thinking about many things and a girl came up to my car and I accepted her services.

"I went to a motel and she called two friends.

"When they arrived I realised they weren't women but men, transvestites, and in that moment I told them I didn't want anything more.

"There the extortion began. They asked me for more money. I began to negotiate with them so that there wouldn't be any more problems.

"But she was a liar and these people wanted to profit from me to continue in life, to be famous. I didn't want to continue because they weren't girls.

"I did a stupid thing in contracting the services of a girl who then turned out not to be one."

Ronaldo claims he is not the first person to be duped by Albertini.

"It never entered my mind that the first girl was a guy," he said. "It also turns out that this girl has a case against her from someone else who accepted her services.

"Because she doesn't put herself in the place where the transvestites are but where the prostitutes are.

"My case isn't the first, she has already done extortion like this and I was a victim.

"They threatened to go to the press if I didn't pay them 30,000 euros, but investigations have confirmed that while I was with these girls in the room the boyfriend of one of them was already telling everything to a newspaper."

He added: "I want people to realise that it's not my usual habit to do such a thing.

"I have always had girlfriends and I have never needed this type of service but we all make mistakes in life."