Former Inter forward Samuel Eto’o was handed a 22-month suspended sentence as he avoided jail after admitting tax fraud of €3.8 million in Spain.
Eto’o, who played in Spain from 1997 to 2009 at various clubs, said of the sentence on Monday: “I admit the facts and I am going to pay what I’m due, but let it be known that I was a just a child then and that I always did what my former agent Jose Maria Mesalles, who I considered like a father, asked me to do at that time.”
The ex-Cameroon international will pay back the €3.8m tax owed for image rights from 2006 to 2009 as well as a €1.8m fine.
Mesalles was also handed a one-year suspended sentence, though the prosecution had requested a four year and six month jail term for both.
Eto’o started his career at Real Madrid and had loan spells at Leganes, Espanyol and Mallorca before joining the latter permanently.
From there, he joined Barcelona in 2003 and won the Champions League twice – scoring in both finals.
In Italy, he played for Inter and was a key element of the Treble winning side on 2009-10 before later returning with Sampdoria in 2015.