Barca striker Neymar summoned to answer fraud charges

The Spanish High Court on Wednesday summoned FC Barcelona's Brazilian striker Neymar to appear on February 2 to answer fraud charges related to his move to the club two and a half years ago.

Neymar, who on Monday finished third in the voting for the Balon D'Or behind Leo Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, was summoned by the Judge, Jose de la Mata, along with his parents, current Barca president, Josep Bartomeu and his predecessor in the role Sandro Rosell as an official suspect.

The 23-year-old joined Barcelona in the summer of 2013 from Brazilian side, Santos for a fee which Barca reported as 57 million euros.

However, much of that money went to a company close to Neymar's family and in 2014 the Spanish Public Prosecutor asked for an inquiry to be carried out after reports showed Barca had avoided paying over 9 million euros (around 10 million US dollars) in taxes in the deal.

Part of the problem is that although there were many variables involved in the final cost of the player, many of the requirements were so easy to meet that Barca were almost certainly guaranteed to have to pay them.

This angered the company DIS (Deportes e Organizacao de Eventos) which had owned 40 percent of Neymar's rights and filed for fraud. Endit