Spain keeper De Gea denies 2012 sexual assault allegations

Spain goalkeeper David de Gea said on Friday that reports linking him to a prostitution case currently under investigation in Spain were false.

According to the Spanish newspaper El Diario, the Manchester United goalkeeper was named in a statement given by a protected witness in a rape case against pornography producer Ignacio Fernandez Allende, nicknamed Torbe.

Torbe has been in prison since April on charges relating to prostitution, including human trafficking for sexual exploitation.

“This is in the hands of my lawyers as I have said, I am very very calm, I know what I’ve done with my life and everything is false. I have nothing else to say,” de Gea told a news conference at Spain’s Euro 2016 training base in Ile de Re, France.

Neither the court investigating the case nor the Spanish police were available for comment.

The 25 year old said the story caught him by surprise.

“I have no idea where this report can come from and how it can be published in the press and I see it as a way to damage my image. I’m very calm, I know it’s false and I’m just going forward,” he said.

Spain's (SeFutbol) goalkeeper D_DeGea holds press conference: “I am the first to be shocked. It's all a lie” https://t.co/buAYo1u9I7

— Selección Española (@SeFutbol) June 10, 2016

De Gea said the issue would not affect his performance at Euro 2016, which got underway on Friday. There were reports that he may leave the Spain team but he said he would remain.

Spain, the defending champions, begin their Euro 2016 campaign against the Czech Republic in Toulouse on Monday.