International footballer Quincy Promes has been charged with smuggling two shipments of cocaine through the port of Antwerp.

Dutch prosecutors say they have evidence that the 31-year-old was involved in importing a 650 kg load of drugs and another weighing 720 kg in January 2020.

Promes is charged along with an unidentified 31-year-old man who was arrested in Purmerend a month ago on suspicion of drug dealing and money laundering.

The player, who lives in Russia after moving from Ajax to Spartak Moscow in 2020, will not be in court when the case is heard on Monday.

Promes was also accused of stabbing his nephew at a family party in July 2020 in a dispute over a stolen necklace. His involvement in the stabbing came to light while police were tapping his phone during the investigation into the drugs haul.

The verdict in the stabbing case was postponed at the start of March when his lawyers challenged the use of evidence gathered in an unrelated investigation.

The prosecution service had requested a two-year prison term for Promes. Reports in Russia claimed that he had applied for citizenship, which would make him immune from extradition, but his lawyer Robert Malewicz said he was not planning to give up his Dutch nationality.