Real Madrid soccer player Cristiano Ronaldo poses with his AS Award at the Palace Hotel in Madrid, Spain.

Did someone say eye candy?!

Photos: Fame

Here are five surprising facts about Irina Shayk, the cover model for Sports Illustrated’s 2011 swimsuit issue from The Hollywood Reporter:

1. She is a coal miner’s daughter from a tiny Russian village called Yemanzhelinsk. “I’m from a very, very small city in the middle of nowhere; it’s actually like one street, and everybody knows everyone,” Shayk, 25, said on NBC’s Today show Tuesday.

2. She’s appeared in the magazine’s swimsuit issue since 2007. Discovered in 2004 while on a three-day train ride from Chelyabinsk to Moscow, Shayk has gone on to grace various magazine covers and headline ad campaigns for Lacoste and Guess. After posing for SI’s Swimsuit issue for the past five years, she said on the Today show: “To be on the cover of Sports Illustrated is a dream come true.”

3. She wasn’t expecting the cover. She didn’t learn the big news until she appeared on the Late Show With David Letterman Monday. “There were 10 models there to do the Top 10 List, and nobody knows until the last minute who the cover will be,” she told the Associated Press. “And then I saw it, and I couldn’t believe it.”

4. She’s dating international soccer sensation Cristiano Ronaldo. She played coy when asked about the romance on the Today show. “You can ask, but I wouldn’t respond,” she said. “We Russians, we like to keep secrets — you know, KGB, Russian spy!”

5. She never diets. “I do work out five times a week, but I’m never dieting,” she said. “I try to be healthy because to be happy and healthy on the inside shows on the outside.”

Don’t you just love hearing that supermodels don’t diet.

The cover girl isn’t suppsoed to be announced until tonight at midnight on David Letterman, but leave it to Twitter to break the news early.

This year’s Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition cover girl is Russian beauty Irina Shayk, also known as soccer player Cristiano Ronaldo’s girlfriend!

Here’s the photo Rana Wardlaw took of the billboard outside her office and then tweeted. “I saw it from my office window,” Wardlaw says. “I work at a media agency called Starcom Worldwide. They unveiled the billboard for a few minutes to tape it for the Letterman Show and then covered it back up. I guess they didn’t cover it fast enough!”

Cristiano Ronaldo and girlfriend Irina Shayk joke around as they watch the Spain v USA basketball match at the Caja
Magica pavillion in Madrid.

Cristiano Ronaldo and his team mates of Real Madrid are greeted by a swarm of adoring fans as they arrive in LA from Madrid for their game against the LA Galaxy in Los Angeles Ca on July 29, 2010.

Fame Pictures

Despite the fact that his homeland Portugal was eliminated from the World Cup, Cristiano Ronaldo
has a good reason to celebrate.

July 3, he took to his Twitter to announce that he is now a father to a baby boy.

t 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.

No further information will be provided on this subject and I request everyone to fully respect my right to privacy (and that of the child) at least on issues as personal as these are.

Ronaldo has said to have never been in a long term relationship, but has romanced some very famous women. Among these are Paris Hilton and Kim Kardashian.

Ronaldo was heart-broken by Portugal’s World Cup loss. He had this to say about it.

“I feel like a broken man, completely devastated, frustrated and with an unimaginable sadness,” he said.

I am sure all that sadness has now turned to joy. Nothing like a newborn son to cure any sadness. Congratulations Cristiano!

Source Fame

The National Football Teams of Spain and Portugal training on June 28, 2010 the day before their decisive match in Cape Town, South Africa.

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