Neymar's parents deny tax evasion

Rio De Janeiro: The parents of Barcelona forward Neymar late Saturday denied their son avoided paying taxes in Brazil.

Neymar da Silva Santos and Nadine Goncalves da Silva Santos issued a joint statement less than a day after judge Carlos Muta seized assets worth 189 mn reais ($47 mn) belonging to the Brazil captain, Xinhua news agency reported.

Neymar is accused of evading 63 mn reais in taxes between 2011 and 2013, including income received from his move from Santos to Barcelona in 2013.

Authorities also froze the bank accounts of Neymar's father and his companies.

"Neymar Jr is not associated with any of the companies being investigated and for that reason cannot declare what doesn't belong to him," said Neymar's parents in a joint statement.

"Neymar Jr did not evade taxes and neither did any of our companies."

Barcelona was initially reported to have paid 57 mn euros for Neymar but the club has since said the total cost was about 86 mn euros.

Sandro Rosell, Barcelona's president when Neymar signed, quit in January 2014 amid an investigation into the case by Spanish authorities.