Barcelona’s Argentine midfielder Javier Mascherano has been sentenced to one year in prison for not properly paying taxes in Spain but is unlikely to serve any jail time. Mascherano failed to pay nearly €1.5m in taxes during 2011 and 2012, and was convicted of concealing earnings from his image rights.
The versatile midfielder-cum-defender was fined about €800,000 (£611,000) on Thursday and will not receive any tax benefits for a year. As regards to his prison sentence, the 31-year-old is expected to bypass the sentence with another fine or the sentence might be entirely dismissed.
Mascherano joined Barcelona from Liverpool in the summer of 2010 and has been the club’s lynchpin ever since.