AS Monaco striker Wissam Ben Yedder has been handed a six-month suspended prison sentence and fined €133,799 (£117,742, $145,961) for tax offences during his time as a Sevilla player in Spain, according to Reuters.
In Spain, prison sentences under two years for non-violent crimes rarely require a defendant without previous convictions to serve jail time.
The sentence was agreed in a plea deal between Ben Yedder’s defence, the prosecutor and the state attorney who represented tax authorities.
The French footballer, who played for Sevilla between 2016 and 2019, reportedly failed to pay his taxes on time in 2017.
Following a request from tax authorities in 2019, the striker paid €225,323 in back taxes but did not include interest received as income from movable capital and reportedly failed to declare a sponsorship contract with Adidas, Reuters said.
Ben Yedder later paid €51,007 to include those items plus interest.
But he is not the only high-profile figure to get in trouble with the Spanish tax authorities.
Other similar cases include Gerald Pique, Carlo Ancelotti, Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Javier Mascherano, Samuel Etoo, Alexis Sanchez, and Diego Costa. Football manager Jose Mourinho also admitted failing to pay tax, while former Liverpool midfielder Xabi Alonso was cleared of three counts of tax fraud on 26 November 2019.
