Messi testifies at tax fraud trial: I signed what my father told me to sign

Barcelona star Lionel Messi said he had no knowledge of his financial situation while testifying Thursday at his trial on charges of tax fraud in Spain.

The diminutive Argentine and his father are facing three counts of tax fraud for €4.1 million from 2007-09. Part of the player's income was going to companies created in countries including Uruguay, Belize, and Switzerland in an effort, Spanish authorities allege, to reduce his tax burden.

"I didn't know anything," Messi said, according to the Associated Press' Tales Azzoni. "I only worried about playing football. ...

"I signed what he told me to sign because I trusted my father. I trusted my father, and the lawyers said that I could."

Messi added, "The only thing I knew is that we signed deals with different sponsors and they paid for me to do advertisements, photos and things like that. But I didn't know how this money arrived or where it was going."

His father Jorge Horacio Messi also testified, saying his son was minimally informed about the use of his income and the structures created in other countries regarding the funds from his image rights.

"I didn't think it was necessary to inform him of everything," Messi's father said.

If found guilty, both men could be sentenced to 22 months in prison, though Spanish law does not always enforce prison time for sentences of less than two years. The star could, however, could be fined and made to forfeit possible future tax benefits. The money owed has also been paid back.