Former France football captain Patrice Evra was found guilty of abandoning his family by a French court, his lawyer told AFP on Saturday.

Evra, a defender who won 81 France cups and played for Manchester United and Juventus, has appealed against the decision handed down by a court in Nanterre in the Paris suburbs, said his lawyer, Jerome Boursican.

“The facts are disputed,” said Boursican.

Nathalie Dubois, lawyer for Evra’s wife, said Evra received a suspended 12-month prison sentence and was ordered to pay €4,000 in damages for abandoning his family between May 2021 and September 2023.

Evra’s wife sued him saying he had not paid maintenance since 2020, explained Dubois. She said Evra, 43, owed arrears of 969,000 euros (just over one million dollars).

The couple are also going through divorce proceedings.

“I am pleased that the family abandonment suffered by Patrice Evra’s wife and two children has been punished in a manner to commensurate with the brutality with which he abandoned them, and that the lies he has been telling the courts for the past four years have not fooled the judges,” said Dubois.

Boursican said his client has been “more than generous with his wife”.

Evra has known his wife since he was 15 but in 2020 went to live with a Danish model he had met in England, leaving his family “overnight”, said Dubois.

He had two children from this relationship.

The Nanterre public prosecutor’s office did not respond immediately to confirm the verdict.