Atlético de Madrid striker Diego Costa will pay 1.7 million euros to the Spanish tax authorities, who opened a case against him for tax evasion, the Spanish newspaper El Mundo announced on Tuesday. "Diego Costa has reached an agreement with the tax authorities and admits to being the author of a tax offense for taxes related to his image rights" in 2014, said the newspaper, generally well informed about these cases.
A prison sentence commuted to a fine
Pursuant to this agreement, which is yet to be formalized in court on 4 October in Madrid, the attacker will return 1.1 million euros unpaid and will also be sentenced to six months in prison, a sentence he will avoid by paying a fine of 600,000 euros, said El Mundo . Contacted, a spokesman for the Spanish tax authorities declined to comment. The tax department systematically argues that it can not refer to taxpayer files in particular.
According to El Mundo , the taxman estimates that the 30-year-old striker concealed the income from a sponsorship deal with Adidas signed shortly before his arrival at Chelsea in 2014. Diego Costa then left Atletico to win the London club , but he returned to the Madrid club in 2018.
The international striker, injured last Saturday in the friendly match won by Atlético against Juventus, can not anyway play against Getafe Sunday for the first day of the championship: he completes to serve a suspension of eight matches which he has scooped for insulting and grabbing a referee in April.