David de Gea, Spain goalkeeper, denies link to prostitution case

Spain goalkeeper David De Gea on Friday denied wrongdoing after allegations he was embroiled in a police investigation into a pornographic filmmaker.

In a hastily called press conference at Spain's European Championship team base in western France, De Gea said he was surprised by the allegations and called them a lie.

"I was the first to be caught by surprise by this news," De Gea said. "What is being reported by the press is all false."

De Gea's name appeared in court papers published by Spain's El Diario newspaper on Friday. Police confirmed the documents' legitimacy to The Associated Press.

According to the court papers, the Manchester United goalkeeper was accused by a protected witness of promoting an encounter between her and two other soccer players, one of which was identified as Athletic Bilbao forward Iker Muniain.

Munian also denied any wrongdoing on Friday.

The player said on Twitter that the allegations were "absolutely false" and he also planned to hire a lawyer "to defend his honour."

The name of the other player was not released. During the alleged encounter in 2012, the witness said she was abused by the players.

The documents said there were text messages exchanged between De Gea and Muniain.

The police have made no accusations against De Gea or the other players.

The court documents are part of an investigation into an alleged prostitution ring involving detained Spanish pornography entrepreneur Ignacio Allende Fernandez, also known as Torbe.

De Gea said Friday he has "no idea where this came from," and indicated that he planned legal action against those who accused him, saying "it's all in the hands of my lawyers."

He said he never considered leaving the squad because of the allegations and is even more motivated to try to help Spain win a third straight title in the European competition.

"This gives me more strength to train even harder. They can say whatever they want, it's all false," he said.