Neymar has an appointment with justice. The day after the classic against OM where he shone, the football champion is expected from this Monday before a court in Barcelona to explain himself on alleged embezzlement in the context of his transfer in 2013 to Barça.
The player and FC Barcelona are both among the defendants in this resounding trial, which will open at 10 a.m. and last until October 31. The attacker is accused of corruption by the public prosecutor, who is claiming two years in prison and a fine of 10 million euros against him.
Will the player make the move?
Among the eight other defendants are his parents, two former presidents of FC Barcelona – Sandro Rosell and Josep María Bartomeu – and a former manager of his former Brazilian club Santos, Odilio Rodrigues Filho. The other defendants are three legal entities: FC Barcelona, Santos FC and the company founded by the player’s parents to manage his career.
Neymar is normally expected to be present in court for the start of the trial, although there is no official confirmation at this stage that he will make the trip. The court, on the other hand, indicated that he was scheduled to testify either on October 21 or on the 28th, but did not specify whether it would be in person.
The long-awaited testimony of Florentino Pérez
Matchday two, Tuesday, is also shaping up to be a highlight, as the prosecution called Real Madrid president Florentino Pérez to testify, who will speak via videoconference to explain how the secret 2011 deal between Barca and the player weighed on the transfer window by preventing other clubs from struggling to recruit Neymar.
It was the Brazilian investment company DIS, then holder of 40% of the player’s economic rights, which brought the case to court in 2015. DIS believes that it was wronged in the transfer, because if FC Barcelona initially quantified its cost at 57.1 million euros (40 million for Neymar and his family and 17.1 for Santos FC), the Spanish justice estimates that the recruitment of Neymar actually cost at least 83 million euros.
“Neymar 2” after “Neymar 1”
The company, which received 6.8 million euros of the 17.1 officially paid to the Brazilian club, claims that Barça, Neymar and then Santos FC teamed up to conceal the real amount of the operation and the have “cheated”. She is thus claiming 35 million euros, the amount she believes to have lost in the case.
For their part, Neymar’s lawyers claim that he has not committed any crime, the 40 million euros he received corresponding to “a legal and usual transfer bonus on the football market”. This trial has been nicknamed “Neymar 2”, “Neymar 1” designating the case of tax evasion deriving from this same transfer and which was concluded in 2016 by an agreement between the prosecution and FC Barcelona, the Catalan club agreeing to pay a fine of 5.5 million euros.