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MADRID (Reuters) – Barcelona soccer star Lionel Messi will spend precisely ZERO days behind bars – despite being sentenced to 21 months for tax evasion yesterday.

The Argentine superstar (29) and his father were found guilty of tax fraud and were handed a suspended sentence.

Messi has been sentenced to 21 months in prison after a court in Barcelona found him guilty of three counts of tax fraud, a statement from the court said yesterday.

The court also sentenced the Argentine soccer player’s father, Jorge, to 21 months in prison for the same three crimes. The sentence can be appealed through the Spanish supreme court, the statement said.

However, under Spanish law a prison sentence under two years can be served under probation, meaning Messi and his father are unlikely to go to jail.

Having been found guilty – after prosecutors claimed they used tax havens in Belize and Uruguay to conceal earnings from image rights – they were given a 21-month suspended sentence yesterday.

The court ordered Messi to pay a fine of around 2 million euros and his father to pay 1.5 million euros for the crimes.

Messi and his father were both found guilty by a court in Barcelona of defrauding the Spanish tax authorities of 4.1million euros in the period between 2007 and 2009 by not paying tax on image rights earnings.

Messi, whose father Jorge was a co-defendant and received the same sentence, was handed a term of under two years and thus, under Spanish law, is unlikely to have to go to prison unless he offends again.

He will, however, have to pay a fine of around 2.3million euros on top of the reparations already paid to authorities.

When giving evidence earlier this summer, Jorge Messi absolved his son of all blame, with the 28-year-old claiming he did not “read the documents, only sign them.”

It meant that the five-time Ballon d’Or winner had his signature on a raft of documents that channelled income from sponsorship deals through third parties in Belize and Uruguay.

During the four-day trial last month, Messi and his father denied any wrongdoing. Both said the player was unaware of the tax issues that led to the fraud charges.

But the state prosecutor argued that Messi and his father had failed to prove their innocence and were unable to show that the player did not have at least some knowledge of the corporate structures created to lower his tax burden in Spain.

Tax inspectors testified that they found evidence that Messi’s father used companies in countries such as Uruguay, Switzerland and Belize to reduce tax on the player’s income from image rights. Messi’s father said he was told by a legal adviser that the practice was legal.

The sentence can be appealed.

Barcelona issued a statement in Catalan to ‘‘express its complete support for Leo Messi and his father.’’

‘’FC Barcelona remains at the disposition of Leo Messi and his family to stand by him in any actions that he decides to take in defence of his honour and legitimate self-interests,’’ it said.

The 29-year-old Messi is Argentina’s career-leading scorer with 55 goals in 113 international appearances. But he has lost three Copa America finals with Argentina (2007, 2015 and 2016) and announced his international retirement after last month’s penalty shootout loss to Chile.

With Barcelona, in contrast, Messi has won four Champions League titles and three Club World Cup trophies. He also won eight Spanish league titles, scoring 453 competitive goals in 531 games, including a league-record 312.

This is just one legal case involving Barcelona’s players.

Earlier this year, Javier Mascherano was handed a suspended one-year prison sentence for not paying all his taxes for 2011 and 2012.

Adriano is also being investigated for alleged tax fraud, while Neymar has had to testify before a judge because of alleged irregularities involving his transfer to Barcelona. He and the club are accused of withholding the real amount of the transfer fee, in part to avoid paying the full amount of taxes.

They have denied wrongdoing.