Eto'o avoids jail after admitting tax fraud

Samuel Eto’o

, who featured in Spain from 1997 to 2009 at different clubs, talked about the sentence on Monday:

“I admit the facts and I am going to pay what I’m due, but let it be known that I was a just a child then and that I always did what my former agent Jose Maria Mesalles, who I considered like a father, asked me to do at that time.”

The former Cameroon international will give the tax he owes for image rights from 2006 to 2009 and a €1.8m fine.

Mesalles was also given a one-year suspension sentence, but the prosecution asked for a four year and six month jail.

Eto’o began his career at

and had played for Leganes, Espanyol and Mallorca on loan deals before the latter became permanent.

From there, he made a move to Barcelona in 2003 and contributed to two Champions League victories, meeting the back of the net in both finals.

He featured for

and was a crucial player in the Treble winner side in 2009 before the latter joined Sampdoria in 2015.

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