Barcelona’s Lionel Messi has paid €53m in taxes to Spanish Hacienda this year

After a few years where the relationship went cool, Lionel Messi is back in the Spanish tax office’s good books.

The Barcelona man is the single biggest contributor to La Hacienda this year, forking over a colossal 53 million Euros, according to Spanish paper La Vanguardia.

But to be clear, this wasn’t some benevolent act of goodwill from Messi; rather, he was merely paying back the tax that he owed La Hacienda, for avoiding paying any during the three years from 2010 – 2012.

The figure also includes Messi’s increased image rights, which Messi didn’t declare for those three years.

Which is expected to cost him a fine of €3m, again according to La Vanguardia, which will take Messi’s subtotal to €56m.

Nearly 2 Toni Krooses in taxes, that’s quite a hit.