Lionel Messi insisted he had no knowledge of any attempts to avoid over €4million in tax as he gave evidence in his and his father’s trial over tax evasion.
Both Leo, 28, and his father, Jorge Horacio, declined to take questions from the state prosecutors but gave testimony in the court in Barcelona.
And the Argentina skipper, who is due in San Francisco for his nation’s Copa America opener in just four days, stuck largely to the same defence that he had employed in his 2013 witness declaration as he spoke for around 12 minutes.
“I didn’t know anything, all I know about is playing football and winning. I left it all to my Dad,” he said, wearing a dark suit and tie.
“I only knew that sponsors would pay X amount of money, that I had to do adverts, photos and things like that.
“I never read anything… I would sign where [the lawyers] said.
“I signed [the adidas contract] when I was 18, I was in another world.”
The FC Barcelona star and his father Jorge stand accused of defrauding Spain of over €4million in taxes by using offshore companies in Uruguay and Belize to conceal image rights earnings in the period 2007-2009.
Tax authorities are asking that both serve nearly two years in jail for the offence, but the public prosecutor is only pursuing Messi Sr.
Jorge Messi, Leo’s father and co-defendant, had earlier claimed that he didn’t realise the Belize company that managed image rights deals didn’t pay taxes in Spain, and that he never informed his son of the details of sponsorship deals.
“Since the start of Leo’s career I only tried to make his life easier,” he said.
“Leo knew nothing of these companies. He didn’t read the contracts.
“They needed his signature, he went and signed but he didn’t read anything and nor did anyone explain it to him.”
Messi was earlier urged to “give the money back” by members of the Spanish public as he arrived in court to give evidence at his trial for tax evasion.
Hecklers urged the Barcelona man to pay back the taxpayer while others screamed their support for the city’s biggest sporting star.
Leo sat in court for over four hours before being asked to give their own testimony, impatiently stretching his legs as he suffers with a back injury sustained last week.
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