Rangers legend Fernando Ricksen ‘hid’ his wealth

Ex-wife’s shock claim in bitter court battle.

Stricken Rangers legend Fernando Ricksen has been accused of providing “manipulated” documents to a Dutch court to hide the true extent of his earnings.

The former Ibrox captain, 38, is fighting a bitter court battle with his ex-wife Graciela L’Ami over their shared fortune.

The star who has motor neurone disease wants glamorous Graciela to hand back £650,000 she allegedly took from a shared bank account.

However, she claims she was entitled to whatever she took and is bitterly contesting his claims.

This week a judge in the Netherlands was told as part of a pre-trial hearing Ricksen has not revealed his earnings while playing for Russian side, Zenit St Petersburg.

Graciela’s lawyers claim the financial data is essential to allow a court battle to go ahead fairly. Her legal team is understood only to have been provided with a stack of cryptic documents.

Her attorney said: “We are not ruling out potential manipulation. We want to know how much he earned between 2006 and 2010. He claims there’s nothing left, which seems highly unlikely.”

Last year Ricksen revealed he was suffering from motor neurone disease and that the degenerative condition was rapidly taking its toll, severely affecting his speech and causing him to shake uncontrollably.

Ricksen claims he is now broke and has to borrow money from his mother who lives on benefits. His lawyers told the court Graciela owes him hundreds of thousands of pounds.

One of her bank accounts is understood to have been frozen pending the outcome of the hearing.

In June she exclusively told The Sunday Post she didn’t want to cause Ricksen any undue stress via a court battle.

The 40-year-old said: “You wouldn’t wish the disease on anyone, especially not someone you’ve shared your joys and sorrows with, even though he crossed the line so many times and has been so unfair.

“Fernando wants to portray me as a gold-digger, but I’m very reasonable. He wants revenge because I left him and found a new love.”

The couple are due to in court next week where the splitting of their shared fortune will be decided.

Of their bitter fight he recently said: “I don’t know why she is doing this to me she knows I am dying.”

Ricksen has also accused Graciela of refusing to give back precious mementos, including treasured memorabilia from his playing career.

The former international signed for Rangers for almost £4million in 2000. He was unavailable for comment.

Report by Graham McKendrie and Thessa Lageman