The World Player of the Year for football (soccer for my American readers) is finding himself in the spotlight for reasons other than sports this week. Lionel Messi, together with his father, are facing accusation by Spanish tax authorities of filing fraudulent tax returns for the years 2007-2009. Criminal charges were filed today by prosecutor Raquel Amado in Barcelona and allege nearly €4m ($5.3 million U.S.) in unpaid taxes.
The 25-year-old football phenom originally hails from Argentina and is the captain of the Argentina national team. He is most famous as a forward for La Liga club FC Barcelona, where he is reported to have signed a contract this year which nets him at least €11m ($14.6 million U.S.) per year – before incentives.
Football fans say that he’s worth it, noting that before he turned 21, Messi had received Ballon d’Or and FIFA World Player of the Year nominations. In 2009, he took home the Ballon d’Or, beating out Cristiano Ronaldo, who took home the prize in the prior year. It wouldn’t be the Argentine’s only Ballon d’Or: he won the 2012 award, as well, besting Ronaldo and Andres Iniesta, bringing his win total to three.
Messi is much beloved in Barcelona and in Argentina, who have been quick to label him the “best footballer in the world.” His style and talent have attracted comparisons to fellow Argentine Diego Maradona. Even Maradona is a fan, proclaiming him as his “successor” when Messi was just 18 years old.
Maradona said about the footballer, “I have seen the player who will inherit my place in Argentine football and his name is Messi.” He continued, “Messi is the best player in the world, along with Ronaldinho. I see him as very similar to me.” Argentine Football Association president Julio Grondona also saw the comparisons that year, declaring, “[h]e’s playing at the level of Diego in 1979 and a bit more.”
Interestingly, the comparisons don’t stop on the football field. Maradona has his own history of tax troubles. Tax authorities in Italy seized diamond earrings belonging to Maradona in 2009 in an attempt to chip away at a tax debt worth allegedly more than 31 million euros (about $41 million US). It wasn’t the first such attempt to collect the debt. In 2006, the same year that Maradona proclaimed Messi his successor, Italian police confiscated two of Maradona’s Rolex watches worth $15,000 when he showed up to play in a benefit match; the police had been authorized to take anything “within plain sight” that belonged to Maradona to satisfy the debt. Maradona, for his part, insisted that the taxes are the responsibility of team Napoli as his employer.
Messi isn’t making a similar claim. His case is a bit different in that he and his father have been accused of setting up foreign companies to sell the rights to use his image, therefore avoiding taxes. If that rings a bell, you’re likely thinking of Brazilian race car driver Helio Castroneves, who, together with his sister, had been accused by the Internal Revenue Service of using foreign companies to hide endorsement income earned in the U.S. Castroneves was eventually acquitted on six counts of tax evasion.
As with Castroneves, the potential consequences of these charges are serious. This is one match for which you expect Messi to bring his A-game: in addition to a fine, Messi could face up to six years in prison if he is convicted.
