The Argentinian, who now plays for Paris Saint-German, has been sentenced to one year in prison and fined £1.76m (€2m) after pleading guilty to two counts of tax fraud in Spain.
However, similar to Lionel Messi who was sentenced to 21-months by a Spanish court last year, Di Maria is unlikely to spend any time in jail as most sentences under two years in Spain are suspended for first-time offenders.
According to Spanish authorities, Di Maria will plead guilty to two charges of fraud relating to image rights during his time at Real Madrid.
The 29-year-old sports star is accused of defrauding the country’s tax coffers out of €1.3m between 2012-2013 by giving up his image rights to companies based in offshore jurisdictions such as Panama.
Di María spent four seasons with Real Madrid between 2010–14 and the details of his case have been confirmed by the Spanish tax authorities
Ronaldo and Mourinho
It comes just days after it emerged that legendary football manager Jose Mourinho is facing claims of two counts of tax fraud totalling €3.3m by Spanish prosecutors dating back to 2011 and 2012 when he was in charge of Real Madrid.
Earlier this month, Spain’s Prosecutor’s Office in Madrid filed a lawsuit against Ronaldo for allegedly defrauding the country’s tax office of €14.7m.
Between 2011 and 2014, he is accused of using shell companies in the British Virgin Islands, Ireland, Columbia and Panama to hide earnings related to his image rights.
According to Spanish reports, Ronaldo is being persuaded by lawyers to pay the outstanding tax bill in order to reduce future fines.
