Former Manchester United defender Patrice Evra has been handed a suspended 12-month prison sentence after being found guilty of abandoning his wife and two children.

Evra’s sentence was confirmed by the Nanterre prosecutor’s office, according to a report by Le Parisien.

The court ruled that Evra abandoned Sandra Evra and their children from May 1, 2021, to September 28, 2023. The 43-year-old allegedly owes €969,000 in unpaid alimony.

The 12-month sentence has, however, been suspended for two years, but the former France international has been ordered to pay his wife €4,000 for moral damages and €2,000 for legal costs.

Meanwhile, Patrice, who is considered one of the greatest left-backs in Europe, “has filed an appeal,” his attorney Jerome Boursica told Le Parisien.

According to Bourisca, “Mr Patrice Evra filed an appeal, knowing that he provided his wife with an apartment, a house with a swimming pool in the south of France and that he lent her almost two million euros for her daily life. A sum that she refuses to return, which is the reason for this trial.”

Sandra and Patrice Evra met when they were 15, and were married from 2007 to 2020. They welcomed a son named Lenny Evra and a daughter named Maona.

Reports of their divorce emerged when the former French football team captain was captured kissing Margaux Alexandra, a Danish model, and his current fiancée with whom he now has two children.