Ask any Barcelona supporter before December 2022 to name an all-time best XI and Dani Alves would have been on the list as surely as Lionel Messi, Andres Iniesta or Xavi.
He was Pep Guardiola’s first signing when he took over in 2008, and would go on to win 26 trophies with the club, on his way to becoming the most decorated player in the history of football.
Request a best XI now and there will be a nervous pause as an alternative right-back is sought. Alves’ achievements as a footballer remain, but the sadness and disgust evoked by his crime in the early hours of December 30, 2022 have led people to want to erase his name from the collective memory.
It wasn’t just that he was an entertainer and a winner on the pitch, Alves won over the club’s supporters with his larger-than-life personality – whether he was picking up a banana and eating it while staring at the racist who had thrown him at the field during a match in 2014; offering to donate one of his kidneys to teammate Eric Abidal when he was struck by cancer in 2011; or when he returned to the club on minimum wage in 2022, when they were struggling to afford new signings, he represented to them someone who was more than just a very good player.
That image was shattered when the details of his conduct emerged in the early hours of December 30, and by his subsequent conviction for the rape of a 23-year-old woman in the toilets of the VIP area of a nightclub in Barcelona.
Former Barcelona star Dani Alves has damaged his name after being sentenced to four years and six months in prison after being found guilty of rape
Alves was seen as a legend at Barcelona, but now the club are hoping to erase him from their history
The former Brazil international was found guilty of sexually assaulting a woman in the bathroom of a chic nightclub in Barcelona on December 31, 2022
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When he was first arrested and charged, former teammates were stunned and desperate not to believe the worst. When first asked about his arrest, Xavi said: ‘I feel sorry for Dani because I know him. It surprises me because he always behaved when he was with us.”
Days later, during a subsequent press conference, the Barcelona coach corrected his ill-chosen words, saying: ‘It was wrong to ignore the victim in what I said. These acts must be condemned, regardless of whether Dani or anyone else committed them. I apologize to the victim and victims of all gender violence and rape.”
His correction came after he was heavily criticized for his original comments. And because it had become clear very quickly that Alves would ultimately be found guilty, just like this week, by a court in Barcelona, which would sentence him to four years and six months in prison.
He changed his story several times in the weeks leading up to the trial, while the victim’s account of the events remained unchanged. She told investigators that she arrived at the nightclub with her cousin around 3 a.m. and that they were invited into Alves’ private booth by a waiter.
Initially, the victim and her friend refused, but later agreed after Alves insisted. She said he then motioned for her to join him in another room, which, once inside, she realized was a small bathroom.
She wanted to leave, but Alves prevented her from doing so. She told investigators he then groped her, tried to force her to perform oral sex on him, hit her when she resisted and ultimately raped her.
In her statement, leaked by the Spanish television program ‘vamos a ver’, she said that immediately after the attack: ‘I wanted to leave first and he was at the door and he said to me: ‘You are not leaving, I am leaving earlier then you.”‘
The victim left the club but burst into tears and immediately reported what had happened to security. They called the police and she was taken to a sexual assault center at the city’s hospital clinic, where she was examined.
Prosecutors had pushed for a 12-year prison sentence for the 40-year-old Brazilian after he was convicted in 2022 of raping a woman in a Spanish nightclub.
Dani Alves’ family leaves court earlier this month during the trial – including ex-wife Joana Sanz (center left) and mother Lucia (center right
Alves left the nightclub immediately after the attack. After his arrest, he told police that he did not know his accuser, but that he would later change his story several times.
He had traveled from the Canary Islands to Barcelona, where he had been caring for his unwell mother-in-law with his ex-wife, Joanna Sanz. He met a friend for dinner in Barcelona and they both went to the Sutton nightclub where the attack took place.
He later said he went to the toilet at the nightclub and the victim came after him without anything happening between them.
When cameras at the nightclub revealed that he had been in the bathroom for about 15 minutes and forensics found traces of his semen in the bathroom, he changed his statement again, claiming that consensual sex had taken place and that he had lied to get the to hide infidelity from his friends. woman.
His latest version of events was that he was seriously impaired by the consumption of alcohol. During the trial, his wife stated that he arrived home so drunk that he could no longer speak.
In January, the player’s mother, Lucia Alves, posted a video to her Instagram account showing Alves’ victim having fun with friends and family. The images were taken from the victim’s social networking accounts and were intended to suggest that she suffered no psychological effects from the attack.
It was a last dirty attempt to discredit her and save Alves from a prison sentence.
He has admitted cheating on his ex-wife, Joana Sanz (pictured), but insists he had consensual sex with his accuser
The 40-year-old, who was about to join Mexican side Pumas when he committed the crime (they immediately tore up his contract), will now appeal to the Supreme Court of Catalonia, despite Alves receiving the minimum possible sentence got.
Under Spanish law, the crime of sexual assault by penetration is punishable by prison terms of four to 12 years and the prosecutor sought a sentence of nine years.
It is clear that the fact that he was able to pay compensation of 150,000 euros to the victim contributed to the reduction of his sentence. And several Brazilian media have reported that this money was loaned to Alves by his friend and former teammate Neymar.
He has been in custody since January 2023 and will therefore have to serve another three years and five months. Legal commentators have suggested he could ask to complete the sentence in his home country, far from the city where he wrote his name in football’s history books and then committed the most heinous of crimes, to ensure he only ends up with will be remembered grudgingly by the people who once adored him. , and with disgust and disgust.