Ricardo Carvalho handed seven-month jail sentence

Former Chelsea defender Ricardo Carvalho has been sentenced to seven months in prison after admitting to tax offences during his time at Real Madrid.

The 39-year-old, who now plies his trade for Chinese Super League outfit Shanghai SIPG, was also fined £128,222 for crimes against the Spanish tax authority.

Carvalho was found guilty of hiding income from image rights in 2011 and 2012 when he was playing for Madrid, totalling £490,000.

Any sentence under two years for non-violent crime rarely leads to jail time being served under Spanish law, however, and the ex-Portugal international returned the full amount of tax that he initially avoided paying.

Lionel Messi was found guilty of defrauding the Spanish state in 2016, being handed a prison sentence of 21 months, while Cristiano Ronaldo was questioned in court on a similar charge three months ago.