Spanish prosecutors have accused real Madrid footballer Christiano Ronaldo of defrauding the authorities of millions of euros in tax.

The prosecutor’s office in Madrid says it has filed a lawsuit against the Portuguese player.

He is accused of evading tax amounting to 14.7million euros or $16million us dollars between 2011 to 2014.

The world’s highest-paid sports star had previously said he was not worried about tax investigations as he had nothing to hide.

On this occasion he is accused of knowingly using a “business structure” to hide income made from his image rights. In December, leaked documents suggested that Ronaldo had avoided tax on income allegedly held in offshore accounts.

He has however denied the allegations.