Everything seems to be going wrong for Lionel Messi.
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Just a few weeks after retiring from the Argentina national team because he could not lead the team to win any trophies despite being in three finals in two years, the Barcelona star has been given a 21-month jail sentence for tax evasion.
A Barcelona court found Messi and his father, Jorge, guilty of three counts of tax fraud giving them the same sentence but the two are unlikely to go to prison because under Spanish law, a prison sentence under two years can be served on probation..
The court ordered Messi to pay a fine of around £1.7m and his father to pay £1.27m.
The case concluded on 3 June, with prosecutors contending that Messi’s father was the main person responsible for defrauding Spain’s tax authority of £3.19m from 2007-09.
However, the legal representative for the tax office said the Barcelona forward knew enough to also be held accountable.
At the end of the trial he called for a prison sentence of 22 months each for both Messi and his father, while the public prosecutor requested a sentence of 18 months for the father only.
Government prosecutor Mario Maza had argued Messi and his father did not prove their innocence and were not able to show that the player did not have at least some knowledge of the corporate structures created to lower his tax burden in Spain.
“Messi knew more than he made it appear (in court),†Maza said at the time, adding that they “showed no credibility", skysports reported.