Ex-Barcelona striker Eto'o handed suspended prison sentence over tax fraud

Former Barcelona striker Samuel Eto'o has escaped a jail term for fraud after he was handed a 22-month suspended prison sentence.

The ex-Cameroon international pleaded guilty to tax offences at Barcelona Criminal Court, to the tune of just shy of €3.9 million (£3.3m/$4.1m) in relation to a failure to declare income from his image rights between 2006 and 2009.

Eto'o has been ordered to pay a sum of four fines in response, around the sum of €1.8m (£1.6m/$1.9m), but has avoided an immediate jail term in part due to his prior clean record and because he has already returned some of the defrauded money.

The former attacker - a quadruple Champions League winner with three clubs, who enjoyed prolific spells in Spain, Italy, England and Turkey - accepted the charges while stating that he had been misled by his former advisor Jose Maria Mesalles, against whom he has launched a separate lawsuit.

Eto'o alleges that the mismanagement of his finances - which saw the player's image rights between sportswear giant Puma and Barcelona go undeclared through the use of two external companies in Hungary and Spain - came at the latter's instigation, to whom the player previously described as a "father figure".

"I recognise the facts and I am going to pay, but let it be known that I was a child then and that I always did what my father asked me to do," the 41-year-old read in a statement in court, per Sport.

Eto'o is not the only individual to be indicted and plead guilty, with Mesalles also handed a suspended sentence of a year for his part in committing the fraud.

A third individual - Jesus Lastre, the administrator of the Hungarian-based company - was meanwhile acquitted on all charges.

It remains to be seen whether Eto'o will be forced to