Cristiano Ronaldo's Shocking Announcement on Facebook

KOMPAS.com - Cristiano Ronaldo has become the father of a baby boy according to an extraordinary announcement on his Facebook page. The shock message, which was also posted on the 25-year- old former Manchester United star's Twitter account, indicated that he would bring up the child without the unnamed mother.

The footballer is currently dating Russian underwear model Irina Shayk, but the baby's mother is said to be American. Ronaldo spent last summer in Los Angeles and Miami after signing for Real Madrid from Manchester United for a record £80million.

The world's most expensive and arguably most famous footballer said his son would be kept under his ' exclusive guardianship', leading to questions about why the mother has given him up.

The baby is thought likely to be brought up by Ronaldo's family in his native Portugal. Ronaldo, whose poor World Cup campaign came to an end last week when Portugal were knocked out by Spain, is now concentrating again on club football.

But his gruelling training regime and fixtures at Real Madrid, where he earns £180,000 a week, combined with a love of the high life, make it all but impossible to imagine him being a single parent.

That makes it likely that the child's upbringing will have plenty of input from Ronaldo's formidable mother Dolores. The announcement of the birth was made on the internet in the early hours of yesterday morning.

It said: 'It is with great joy and emotion that I inform I have recently become father to a baby boy.

'As agreed with the baby's mother, who prefers to have her identity kept confidential, my son will be under my exclusive guardianship.'

Last night, more than 18 hours after the messages first appeared and after 40,000 fans had registered their congratulations on Facebook, Ronaldo's agent confirmed the story, saying: 'Yes, it's true. We make no further comment.'

It is not known whether the footballer had a fling with the woman in question or whether she had the child through a 'Ricky Martin'- style arrangement. The singer became a father to twins with help from a surrogate mother in 2008.