Cristiano Ronaldo is reportedly furious that he has been accused of defrauding the Spanish government of €15 million in unpaid taxes and he is said to have told Real Madrid that he will demand a transfer if he is convicted.
That is what A Bola and Diario Record in Ronaldo’s native Portugal as well as Spain’s Marca, are reporting on Friday.
Marca is confirming that Ronaldo has told Florentino Perez and Jose Angel Sanchez at Real that his decision is ‘irreversible’.
They had already been made aware of his fury earlier in the week when Madrid’s regional state prosecutor publicly accused him of failing to pay the correct amount of tax over a four-year period from 2011 to 2014.
Ronaldo’s rage comes not so much from the investigation into his tax affairs as the way he feels he is being treated like a criminal.
Ronaldo’s side is that he voluntarily made attempts to put his settle this three years ago when in 2014, he made an extra tax payment of €6m.
A Madrid judge will decide over the next fortnight if the case goes to court and Ronaldo will have 30 days to decide if he is to plead guilty and pay a fine or fight the case and risk a stronger punishment.
The fast moving case means that Ronaldo could plead guilty by the end of July, opening up the possibility of August transfer request.
Ronaldo is the latest La Liga star to fall afoul of the Spanish taxman. Just last year, Barcelona star Lionel Messi was given a 21-month suspended sentence for issues around under-payment of €4.1m in taxes due to undeclared image-rights earnings.
