The 36-year-old has been told he will have to serve time in a jail in the southern Brazilian city of Porto Alegre unless he hands over the £45,000 he owes.

The decision was made last week by a family court judge in the retired footballer's home city, but only became public overnight.

The lock-up where ex-Brazil international Anderson, who won the Premier League four times with Man United after signing for the club from Porto in July 2007, could spend his time has been identified locally as the Irmao Miguel Dario Prison.

The former footballer, who also played for Fiorentina in Italy and Internacional in his homeland before hanging up his boots aged just 31, is said to have been told he must serve 30 days behind bars unless he clears his child maintenance debt.

He has been offered the option of doing his prison time in a 'semi-open' regime whereby he could work or study outside the jail during the day but return to sleep at night, according to respected Brazilian news website GZH.

Anderson was at the centre of controversy in his homeland four years ago after being accused of laundering £4.7million though cryptocurrencies.

Anderson, full name Anderson Luis de Abreu Oliveira, was said to be father to four children in 2015 and nine children at the start of the year when he recalled his time at Manchester United in an interview with a Brazilian newspaper.

He revealed he and his former Portuguese teammate Nani were 'adopted' by Cristiano Ronaldo for nearly a year while they slept at his house, saying their beds were stretchers.

He said: 'I thank him very much. He adopted me. We lived at Ronaldo's house for almost a year. We left because we wanted to leave.

'For him we could have stayed there. We didn't spend anything. The guy took us to training, fed us, had a cook for us. There was a swimming pool inside and outside the house, a jacuzzi, and a tennis court.'