The former goalkeeper of Brazil's most popular soccer team went on trial on Monday (November 19) on charges of having kidnapped and ordered the murder of his ex-girlfriend.

The case that transfixed the soccer-crazed country in 2010 involves Flamengo's ex-keeper Bruno Souza and a friend who have been accused of killing 25-year-old Eliza Samudio.

Samudio had filed a police complaint against Souza months before her disappearance, saying that she had been kidnapped, beaten up and forced to take medicine that would induce the abortion of his baby.

Investigators believe Souza tricked Samudio into thinking that he would assume the paternity and ordered his friend to murder her once they reached his vacation home.

Souza's ex-wife will also be tried for helping kidnap Samudio.