Real Madrid forward, Cristiano Ronaldo has reportedly told a Spanish court hearing his tax evasion case that he wants to return to England.

The 32-year-old was accused of evading €14.7m($17.3m) in tax by the Spanish tax authority, which says Ronaldo took “advantage of a company structure created in 2010 to hide income generated in Spain from his image rights from tax authorities.”

A crime they termed “voluntary and conscious breach of his fiscal obligations in Spain”.

In the one and a half hour hearing at the Pozuelo de Alarcon court in Madrid, Ronaldo reportedly told Judge Gómez Ferrer that: “I never had these problems in England. That’s why I want to go back there.”

If the case goes to trial and Ronaldo is found guilty, he could be sentenced to at least three-and-a-half years jail term and fined up to €28m.

Ronaldo, the worlds highest earning athlete, joins the long list of football stars that has been charged with tax evasion crimes by the Spanish tax authority.