Prosecutors in Spain dropped all fraud and corruption charges against PSG and Brazil forward Neymar and other defendants in a case involving his 2013 transfer to Barcelona from Santos.
Neymar had become the focus of the Spanish media over the last week due to the ongoing trial. DIS, a Brazilian investment firm that owned 40% of Neymar’s rights in 2013, filed charges against him for his alleged involvement in transfer corruption, which understated the transfer value of his move to Barça. The prosecutors were seeking a 2-year prison sentence as well as an £8.6m fine.
However, the Spanish prosecution, according to ESPN, has cleared Neymar of fraud and corruption charges. Others who had been charged with him have also been cleared.
This follows a series of public court trials that included testimonies from Neymar, his father, and Real Madrid president Florentino Perez. Perez also revealed Real Madrid’s attempts to sign the attacker a decade ago, but the deal fell through. He told the court that Real Madrid offered Santos 45 million euros for Neymar in 2011, followed by a 36 million euro offer in 2013. But the Brazilian decided to join Barcelona instead where he shined for four years before signing for PSG in a world-record £198m deal in 2017.
Prosecutor Luis Garcia Canton in the concluding statement stated that there was no ‘hint of crime’ committed before asking the judge to ‘acquit all defendants’.
Neymar’s legal representatives Baker McKenzie are now suggesting that they will be claiming costs against the ‘private prosecution’ for ‘recklessness’, ‘acting in poor faith’, and ‘abuse of process’. Neymar also reserves the right to ‘claim for damages’.