Neymar cleared of tax evasion as PSG tables £450m

Barcelona star Neymar has been cleared of tax evasion charges in his native Brazil, according to his father.

Neymar Snr said the decision proved there was ‘justice in our country’ and demanded that the 25-year-old player and his family be left in peace.

The forward was fined £50.7million last year for failing to properly report earnings on his contracts with former club Santos, Barcelona and his sponsorship deals between 2011 and 2014.

This fine – which included the allegedly unpaid back taxes and interest – was halved on appeal in March this year.

However, a parallel case concerning the evasion of Brazilian taxes on his 2013 transfer to Barcelona remained open – until now.

‘It is with great joy that we received the news of the termination of proceedings regarding the complaint on tax evasion directed by the Federal Public Ministry,’ Neymar Snr said in a statement.

‘The proceeding is officially closed, thus it proves the lawfulness of every action we took.

‘During four years of unfounded accusations me, my family and our employees suffered a lot and in every possible way. But albeit lots of people doubt, there’s justice in our country.

‘Accusation by accusation, one after the other, they were all defeated by our defense, leaving it clear that we did not evade not one penny in taxes.

‘Now I hope we can focus only  our jobs, and that I and my family can have the peace we deserve.’

With this distraction out of the way, Neymar can now concentrate on his future at Barcelona amid serious interest from Paris Saint-Germain in a deal that would shatter the world transfer record.

Cash-rich PSG would be prepared to pay £196m to trigger the release clause in Neymar’s Barcelona contract and would offer wages of £500,000-a-week over a six-year contract. The deal would cost the French club as much as £450m in total.