Respite for Neymar after Brazilian court clears him of fraud charges

Neymar (Image source: Twitter)

The Brazilian footballer, Neymar, made the news last week, not for his footballing performance but for fraud charges. The former Barcelona player was accused of fraud and corruption by Brazilian investment firm DIS which owned 40% of the rights to Neymar when he played for Brazilian team Santos. DIS claimed that Neymar and his agent understated Neymar’s transfer deal to Barcelona so they could pay DIS less.

The persecutors had asked for a two-year prison for the player and an additional payment of 10 million Euros to DIS. The PSG player had to appear before the court on Tuesday and give his testimony to the court.

In his first testimony in the trial, the 30-year-old said, "I didn't participate in the negotiations. My father always took care of it and always will. I sign everything he tells me to sign.” The Brazilian also claimed that playing for Barcelona was always his dream and he didn’t participate in the nitty gritty of the transfer. "Playing for Barcelona was always my dream, a childhood dream,” said Neymar.

The DIS lawyers had claimed that Santos, the Brazilian club that Neymar played for earlier ended up receiving 55% of the transfer fee.

“This was done by confidentially agreeing a friendly match with Barcelona for a price of 4.5 million euros and paying 7.9 million euros for a right of first refusal for three players that was never exercised,” the DIS lawyer added.

His dream was to play for Barcelona- Neymar da Silva Santos

Neymar’s father who is also his agent denied of any wrongdoing and claimed that he only wanted Neymar to have a good football career.

"Our intention was to prepare a career plan for him in Europe, in which we had in place already established, could learn the language, etc. And knowing his dream to play for Barcelona, we signed that priority agreement with them," the player's father, Neymar da Silva Santos, told the court.

The former Barcelona player is currently playing for the League 1 outfit PSG with stars like Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe. Neymar is currently preparing to lead the Brazil team in the FIFA World Cup 2022 which is being held in Qatar.