“My father has always been busy” contract negotiations, Neymar said. During the trial on the alleged embezzlement surrounding his transfer in 2013 from Santos to Barça, the Brazilian football star assured, Tuesday, October 18, that he had always signed what his father told him to sign. Also prosecuted in that case,“He has always been responsible for this. I sign what he tells me” to sign, assured the player, during his hearing, in Barcelona, Spain.
The PSG striker also assured not to “remember” to have participated in the negotiations of the agreement sealed in 2011 with Barça around his future transfer, at the heart of this trial.
Accusing him of corruption, the prosecution demanded two years in prison and a fine of 10 million euros against the Brazilian striker.
The player’s parents, two former presidents of Barça – Sandro Rosell and Josep María Bartomeu – and a former manager of the Brazilian club Santos, Odilio Rodrigues Filho, are also on trial in this trial. Just like the legal entities of FC Barcelona, Santos FC and the company founded by Neymar’s parents to manage his career.
In this case, the Brazilian investment company DIS, holder of 40% of the economic rights of the player when he played for Santos, believes that he was wronged in the transfer of the attacker. Because, if Barça initially calculated its cost at 57.1 million euros (40 million for Neymar and his family and 17.1 for Santos), the Spanish justice estimates that the recruitment of Neymar actually cost at least 83 millions of euros. The Brazilian company, which received 6.8 million euros of the 17.1 officially paid to the Brazilian club, claims that Barça, Neymar and then Santos joined forces to conceal the real amount of the operation and have it “cheated”. She is claiming 35 million euros in compensation, the amount she believes she lost in the case.
The player’s defense maintains for its part that Neymar, who then left Barça in 2017 in a sensational way for PSG, has not committed any offense. The 40 million euros he received during this transfer correspond, according to her, to “a legal and customary transfer bonus in the football market”.
Initially scheduled for October 21 or 28, the player’s hearing was brought forward at the request of his lawyers, who highlighted the footballing imperatives of their client who must play Friday with Paris Saint-Germain in the league and Tuesday in the Champions League. He will be able to speak, if he wishes, one last time at the end of the trial, scheduled for October 31, by videoconference.