Spanish Court Calls for a Corrupt Neymar Jr. to Serve Two-Year Prison Sentence

Spanish prosecutors want to imprison Barcelona forward Neymar, Jr. with a sentence of two years for his alleged role in a multi-million dollar soccer corruption case that stems back to 2013. The case surrounds Neymar’s transfer from Brazilian club Santos three years ago, where Brazilian investment group DIS, which owned 40% of Neymar’s transfer rights, alleges it received less money than it was entitled to. Officials believe the soccer superstar and his family hid money in his $105 million USD transfer fee deal from Santos to Barcelona.

As well as the jail sentence, prosecutors have also called for the 24-year-old to be fined €10 million EUR (approximately $10.5 million USD). Neymar has denied any wrongdoing and will stand trial in the near future.

Neymar’s Barcelona teammate, Lionel Messi, was sentenced to 21 months in prison for tax fraud earlier this year. He has since appealed against the sentence.