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Dani Alves, who this morning was sentenced to four-and-a-half years in prison in Spain after being found guilty of sexual assault, was until recently one of the golden boys of global football.
A dynamic, technical right-back, he was a key part of the Barcelona team that set new standards in the European game between 2008 and 2016. He played 126 times for Brazil and won 43 titles in his 22-year playing career – an astonishing number that makes him the second most decorated footballer in history. Only Lionel Messi, his former teammate at the Camp Nou, has more trophies.
That success, combined with an increasingly upbeat public persona, made Alves an extremely – almost universally – popular figure. This goes some way to explaining why his trial, which lasted three days in a Barcelona court earlier this month, was dubbed “the trial of the year” in some sections of the Spanish press. Despite its snide undertones, that adjective reflected just how spectacular Alves’ fall from grace has been.
On December 9, 2022, Alves – then 39 – was on the bench as Brazil played Croatia at the World Cup in Qatar. Just six weeks later, he was arrested by Catalan police for raping a 23-year-old woman in the private bathroom of a Barcelona nightclub on December 30, 2022.
Those charges have now been upheld by Catalonia’s High Court. “The court has no doubt that the complainant’s vagina was penetrated using violence,” it said in a statement issued by the court after this morning’s hearing.
Alves has spent the past 13 months in a detention facility about 25 km northwest of Barcelona; Requests for provisional release were rejected because he was considered a flight risk and there is no extradition arrangement between Brazil and Spain. After his prison sentence he will remain on supervised probation for five additional years. He was also ordered to pay €150,000 (£128,500; $162,700) in compensation to the victim and legal costs.
Alves began his senior career at Bahia, one of the biggest clubs in the northeast of Brazil. He moved to Spain at the age of 19 and joined Sevilla – initially on loan and then on a permanent deal after winning the 2003 FIFA World Youth Championship with the Brazil under-20 team.
Initially, some people questioned whether Alves had the physical strength to compete in La Liga. However, his explanation of the situation has forced doubters to reconsider. Alves was technically a defender but defending was not his forte. He was a free spirit, a genuine winger in the mold of his boyhood idol, Cafu.
Sevilla quickly decided that they needed to harness that energy rather than curb it. Alves was encouraged to use his pace and skill to get forward in the final third. He scored the opening goal in the UEFA Cup final against Middlesborough in 2006 to help give the Andalusians their first European trophy, and was similarly impressive as they retained that title in 2007. A year later, he became a Barcelona player.
His initial eight-season stint at the Camp Nou – he later made a short, largely forgettable return during the 2021-22 season – turned Alves into a superstar. During that time they won six Spanish league titles, three Champions League titles and 14 other trophies, rarely losing a match. You would be hard-pressed to name another full-back who came close to matching his influence and consistency over the same period.
It helped that his arrival at Barcelona coincided with the arrival of Pep Guardiola. The Catalans’ possession-focused approach suited Alaves perfectly and revealed new nuances in his game. His combination play, particularly with Messi, was one of the trademark features of what many consider the best club side of the modern era.
Alves, right, won 23 trophies with Barcelona (Shaun Botterill – FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images)
Even after leaving Barcelona in 2016, Alves remained a key figure. He reached another Champions League final with Juventus at the age of 34 – “an extra-terrestrial,” Juve defender Leonardo Bonucci called him – and won two French titles with Paris Saint-Germain. When he returned to Brazilian club football by signing for São Paulo FC in 2019, 45,000 fans came to the Morumbi Stadium to welcome him.
It was perhaps only to be expected that he never replicated his success at club level with the national team. Alves played for Brazil during a long period of ups and downs and, bizarrely, only became a regular starter during the latter stages of his career. He would have captained the Seleção at the 2018 World Cup, but was ruled out of the tournament due to injury. However, he wore the armband the following summer as Brazil won the Copa America on home soil.
Alves’ attitude – bubbly, cheeky, apparently carefree – arguably won him more fans than he deserved. A little personality can go a long way in a game as intensely self-serious as football, and the Brazilian always seemed determined to take it with him onto the pitch rather than leaving it in the changing rooms.
Over time, Alves leaned towards this persona, and became a full-time cultivator of his own image. She tried her hand at modeling, released a single, and took up social media. Whenever he got off the Brazil team bus, it seemed as if he had a tambourine or a drum in his hand. He turned his character’s description (“good madman”) into a catchphrase. Whenever he signed autographs he used to make a smiley face with a capital D.
Alves played for PSG between 2017 and 2019 (Aurelien Meunier/Getty Images)
Publishing long first-person pieces on the Players’ Tribune website has become a rite of passage for football players. Alves has contributed two of them: one about his modest upbringing and the other reflecting on the pain of missing out on the 2018 World Cup. “Dani Alves isn’t going to the World Cup,” read one symbolic line, “but he’s still a happy motherf*cker.”
Later, after he moved to São Paulo, the same website produced a seven-part documentary about Alves’ life. In one episode he talks at length about his iconoclastic fashion sense while looking into the camera in a series of designer jackets. In another, he discussed his relationship with music. Episode three is about Alves reconnecting with his two children from his first marriage. Its title is The Family Man.
That shred of Alves’ reputation is now in tatters along with all the others.
Earlier in February, the High Court of Catalonia heard testimony concerning Alves’ “disgusting attitude” from the victim’s friend, who was present at the Sutton nightclub on the evening of the incident. While the victim’s statement was given in private, her testimony – previously reported athletic – based on evidence from earlier hearings – gave a detailed account of Alves holding her in a toilet room against her will and entering it without her consent.
Alves was sentenced to four and a half years in prison (Alberto Estevez/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)
This morning, the court upheld that version of events, concluding that Alves “grabbed the complainant by surprise, threw her to the floor and, preventing her from moving, penetrated her vagina, despite the fact that The complainant said no, she wanted to leave.
In a statement, the court said that “It is clear from the injuries sustained by the victim that the violence was done to force the victim to have sex”, and that “the accused violated the victim’s wishes by the use of violence.” Subdued””.
Defense lawyers plan to appeal the verdict.
However, the forceful nature of the decision means it will be hard to see Alves look the same again.
(Photos: Getty Images; Design: Eamonn Dalton)
