The 31-year-old appeared in court on Thursday and accepted the one-year sentence as well as a fine of 815.000 euros (£625,000), although it is expected he will not serve any prison time with his legal representatives having requested the sentence be suspended and replaced with a fine.

Mascherano, who joined Barcelona from Liverpool in 2010, admitted fraud last year and according to a court filing has repaid 1.75million euros (£1.35m), the full amount he owed plus interest.

Following Thursday’s ruling, the Argentina international released a statement via his Twitter account and the Barcelona website in which he said: “I’m a sporting professional, I don’t have a great understanding of tax and legal matters.

“Therefore, to deal with what are for me technical and complicated matters, I have to rely on other people.

“Throughout all my career I have been an honest person, responsible and respectful of my team-mates and the clubs that I have played for and the countries I have lived in.

”’I reserve the possibility of action against those who have badly advised me by recommending something that was not right.”