5 time Ballon D’Or winner, Lionel Messi has been in the news for all the wrong reasons as of late. He recently announced he was retiring from international soccer and shall not be playing for the Argentine national team any longer. This coming after the Argentine team succumbed to defeat at the hands of a 10-man Chile side. Now, Messi has been sentenced to 21 months in jail for tax evasion.
According to reports, Messi’s father, Jorge has also been sentenced to jail for defrauding Spain of €4.1m between 2007 and 2009. They also face millions of euros in fines for using tax havens in Belize and Uruguay used to conceal earnings from image rights.
Despite all this, it is expected that Messi and his father shall actually spend no time in jail. This is because, in Spain it is customary that those sentenced for under two years for non-violent acts often avoid prison time.