Neymar In Court For Fraud, Corruption Trial Over His 2013 Transfer To Barcelona From Santos

Brazilian footballer Neymar arrived at a Barcelona court on Monday, but was allowed to skip the first day of his corruption trial.

The decision was made after the judge took pity on the "tired" footballer who scored Paris Saint-Germain's (PSG) winning goal against Marseille Sunday night, reported Daily Mail.

Maria Masso, Neymar's defence lawyer, said that the PSG striker had gone to bed in the early hours of Monday morning after scoring the only goal in the match against Marseille. He also undertook a doping test before traveling to Barcelona for the trial.

In the Provincial Court of Barcelona, lead judge Jose Manuel del Amo sparked laughter by telling the footballer that he was free to leave after admitting, "He was scoring a goal and I was in bed." The judge said that he was listening to the radio and the player was "performing the tasks associated with his profession."

The 30-year-old footballer left the courthouse with his mother Nadine Goncalves. He is expected to return to the court in the coming days to testify over alleged irregularities in his transfer to Barcelona in 2013.

The ongoing trial is the culmination of a years-long legal saga over Neymar's transfer from Santos, a Brazilian club. He is one of nine defendants on trial on corruption related charges. Among them are his parents and their N&N company. It manages his affairs. The three of them are facing charges of business corruption.

Brazilian investment firm DIS, which is the complainant, said Thursday that it was demanding a five-year jail term for Neymar, reported Reuters.

According to DW, prosecutors are seeking a two-year jail sentence. They also want him to pay a fine of 10 million Euros ($9.8 million).

Investigators started investigating the transfer after a 2015 complaint filed by DIS. It owned 40% of the athlete's sporting rights when he was at Santos. Barcelona said that the transfer cost 57.1 million Euros ($5,61,44,146), but prosecutors believe that it was at least 83 million Euros ($8,16,10,580). The club said that it paid 40 million Euros ($3,93,30,400) to N&N and 17.1 million Euros ($1,68,13,404) to Santos, of which 6.8 million Euros ($66,86,032) was given to DIS. But DIS has claimed that Neymar, Barcelona and Santos colluded to mask there deal's true cost.