Brazil and Paris Saint-Germain forward Neymar Jr was spotted at the Provincial Court of Barcelona on Monday to face a trial on fraud and corruption charges over his 2013 Barcelona transfer from Santos. The PSG star is now expected to testify on Tuesday after the judge altered his gearing dates.
Initially, Neymar was scheduled to testify at his trial on October 21 or 28 but following his football commitments, the Spanish court judge agreed to hear the case before the initial schedule to avoid clash.
According to AFP, Neymar Jr, who scored the only goal in PSG's Ligue 1 clash against Marseille on Sunday, spent two hours at the hearing before the judge excused him for the rest of the day. The 30-year-old's lawyers argued that the footballer needed rest following his Sunday night's clash.
The high-profile trial surrounds the years-long saga over the Brazilians transfer to Barcelona from Santos in 2013. A Brazilian investment firm, DIS that owned 40 percent of the player's sporting rights when he was at Santos, filed a complaint in 2015 over the irregularities in Neymar's transfer to the Spanish side.
According to Barcelona, the transfer cost 57.1 million euros as they paid 40 million euros to N&N and 17.1 million to Santos, of which 6.8 million was given to DIS. However, the prosecutors believe that the transfer deal was worth at least 83 million euros.
The nine defendants on trial on corruption-related charges include Neymar, his parents and the footballer's managing company, N&N company. Former Barca presidents, Sandro Rosell and Josep Maria Bartomeu, and ex-Santos boss Odilio Rodrigues Filho are among the other defendants.
DIS are looking to recover 35 million euros as the trial is due to end on October 31.