Brazil’s exceptional kicker Neymar and eight other defendants have been charged with fraud and corruption in a Barcelona court.
Neymar has stated that he did not participate in the negotiations for his transfer from Santos FC to FC Barcelona in 2013, but he signed what his father presented to him.
The investment firm DIS owned forty percent of the rights to the player and says it lost out because the transfer was undervalued.
“My father has always taken care of these things and always will. I didn’t get involved in the negotiations. I sign everything he [his father] tells me and puts in front of me,” the Paris St-Germain player told the Barcelona court.
“Playing for Barcelona was always my dream, a childhood dream,” the 30-year-old added.
The other defendants are Neymar’s parents, the two clubs, former Barcelona presidents Josep Maria Bartomeu and Sandro Rosell, and former Santos president Odilio Rodrigues.
The player’s father, Neymar da Silva Santos, told the court, “Our intention was to create a career plan for him in Europe, which we had already worked out.
And since we knew it was his dream to play for Barcelona, we signed this priority agreement with them.”
DIS, asks for a five-year prison sentence for Neymar, while the Spanish prosecutors are asking for a two-year sentence and a fine of ten million euros for the player.
They also ask for a five-year prison sentence for Rosell and a fine of 8.4 million euros for Barcelona.
Real Madrid president Florentino Perez, who was called as a witness, told the court that his club offered Santos around 45 million euros in 2011 and another 36 million euros in 2013 to sign Neymar, but the player chose FC Barcelona instead.
Earlier, defense lawyer Maria Masso had stated that the player had not committed any crime, adding that the Spanish courts had no jurisdiction to prosecute the Neymar family because the alleged crimes were committed in Brazil, where they were not punishable.