Brazilian forward Ronaldinho broke a window in the centuries-old cathedral of Santiago de Compostela while filming a television advert, Spanish newspapers reported on Tuesday.

Fortunately for the Barcelona player, the window was a small, modern addition to Spain's most famous pilgrims' shrine.

Ronaldinho did the sort of damage usually associated with schoolboys after being asked to try a scissor-kick beneath the cathedral's 12th century Portico de la Gloria (Portal of Glory).

"I asked Ronaldinho to hit the ball as hard as he could and he had the bad luck to hit the window," local newspaper La Voz de Galicia quoted the advert's director Emil Samper as saying. "It was my fault."

The cathedral in the northern region of Galicia contains relics of St James, Spain's patron saint, and is the destination for thousands of pilgrims each year following the Camino de Santiago trail.