Dani Alves, who was this morning sentenced to four and a half years in prison in Spain after being discovered responsible of sexual assault, was, till very just lately, one among world soccer’s golden boys.
An exuberant, technical right-back, he was a serious a part of the Barcelona staff that set new requirements in the European recreation between 2008 and 2016. He performed 126 occasions for Brazil and received 43 titles throughout his 22-year taking part in profession — an astonishing quantity that makes him the second-most adorned footballer in historical past. Only Lionel Messi, his former team-mate on the Camp Nou, has extra trophies to his title.
That success, coupled with a relentlessly upbeat public persona, made Alves a vastly — nearly universally — common determine. It goes a way to explaining why his listening to, which came about over three days in a Barcelona courtroom earlier this month, was labelled “the trial of the year” in sure sections of the Spanish press. Despite its voyeuristic undertones, that epithet did seize simply how spectacular Alves’ fall from grace has been.
On December 9, 2022, Alves — 39 on the time — was on the bench as Brazil performed Croatia on the World Cup in Qatar. Exactly six weeks later, he was arrested by Catalan police, accused of raping a 23-year-old girl in a non-public lavatory at a Barcelona nightclub on December 30, 2022.
Those accusations have now been upheld by Catalonia’s High Court of Justice. “The court has no doubt that the vaginal penetration of the complainant took place using violence,” learn a press release launched by the courtroom after this morning’s listening to.
Alves has spent the final 13 months in a detention facility some 25km northwest of Barcelona; requests for provisional launch have been denied as a result of he was thought-about a flight threat and there’s no extradition association between Brazil and Spain. After his prison sentence he will likely be on supervised probation for 5 further years. He was additionally ordered to pay the sufferer €150,000 (£128,500; $162,700) in compensation, plus authorized prices.
Alves started his senior profession at Bahia, one of many largest golf equipment in Brazil’s north east. He moved to Spain at 19, becoming a member of Sevilla — initially on mortgage after which on a everlasting deal after successful the 2003 FIFA World Youth Championship with Brazil’s under-20 facet.
At the beginning, some questioned whether or not Alves had the bodily energy to compete in La Liga. His interpretation of his place, although, made the doubters rethink. Alves was technically a defender however defending was not his speciality. He was a free spirit, a de facto winger in the mould of his boyhood idol, Cafu.
Sevilla shortly labored out that that they had to harness that vitality slightly than curb it. Alves was inspired to get ahead, to make use of his pace and talent in the ultimate third. He helped the Andalusians to their first European trophy in 2006, organising the opening objective in the UEFA Cup closing in opposition to Middlesborough, and was equally influential as they retained that title in 2007. A yr later, he turned a Barcelona participant.
His preliminary eight-season spell on the Camp Nou — he later made a brief, largely forgettable return throughout the 2021-22 season — turned Alves right into a famous person. He received six Spanish league titles, three Champions Leagues and 14 different trophies throughout that point, hardly ever lacking a match. You would battle to title one other full-back who got here wherever close to matching his affect and consistency over the identical interval.
It helped that his arrival at Barcelona coincided with that of Pep Guardiola. The Catalan’s possession-centric strategy suited Alves completely and revealed contemporary nuances in his recreation. His mixture play with Messi in explicit was one of many trademark options of what many take into account the very best membership facet of the trendy period.
Alves, proper, received 23 trophies with Barcelona (Shaun Botterill – FIFA/FIFA through Getty Images)
Even after leaving Barcelona in 2016, Alves remained a outstanding determine. He reached one other Champions League closing with Juventus on the age of 34 — “an extra-terrestrial,” Juve defender Leonardo Bonucci known as him — and received two French titles with Paris Saint-Germain. When he returned to Brazilian membership soccer in 2019, signing for Sao Paulo FC, 45,000 followers turned up on the Morumbi stadium to welcome him.
That he by no means fairly replicated his success at membership stage together with his nationwide staff was in all probability to be anticipated. Alves performed for Brazil throughout an prolonged interval of flux and, bizarrely, solely turned an everyday starter throughout the latter levels of his profession. He would have captained the Selecao on the 2018 World Cup, solely to be dominated out of the match due to harm. He did put on the armband the next summer season, nonetheless, main Brazil to a Copa America win on dwelling soil.
Alves’ perspective — chirpy, cheeky, apparently carefree — arguably received him much more admirers than his capacity. Somewhat persona can go a good distance in a sport as overwhelmingly self-serious as soccer, and the Brazilian at all times appeared decided to take his onto the pitch with him slightly than depart it in the altering room.
Over time, Alves leaned into this persona, changing into a full-time cultivator of his personal picture. He dabbled in modelling, launched a single and embraced social media. He appeared to a have tambourine or drum in his hand every time he stepped off the Brazil staff bus. He turned his description of his personal character (“good crazy”) right into a catchphrase. Whenever he signed an autograph, he drew a smiley face contained in the capital D.
Alves performed for PSG between 2017 and 2019 (Aurelien Meunier/Getty Images)
It has turn into a ceremony of passage for footballers to publish lengthy first-person items on the Players’ Tribune web site. Alves has contributed two of them: one about his modest upbringing and one other reflecting upon the ache of lacking out on the 2018 World Cup. “Dani Alves is not going to the World Cup,” learn one emblematic line, “but he is still one happy motherf*cker.”
Later, when he moved to Sao Paulo, the identical web site produced a seven-part documentary about Alves’ life. In one episode he talks at size about his iconoclastic trend sense, mugging on the digicam in a sequence of designer jackets. In one other, he discusses his relationship with music. Episode three is about Alves reconnecting together with his two kids from his first marriage. Its title is The Family Man.
That strand of Alves’ fame now lies in tatters together with all of the others.
Earlier in February, the High Court of Justice of Catalonia heard testimony relating to Alves’ “slimy attitude” from the sufferer’s good friend, who had been current on the Sutton nightclub on the night of the incident. While the sufferer’s assertion was delivered in non-public, her testimony — beforehand reported by The Athletic based mostly on proof from earlier hearings — gave an in depth account of Alves holding her in opposition to her will in a bathroom cubicle and penetrating her with out her consent.
Alves was sentenced to four and a half years in prison (ALBERTO ESTEVEZ/POOL/AFP through Getty Images)
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