After months of investigation
Dani Alves is accused of sexual aggression
November 14, 2023, 5:36 p.m
Dani Alves has been in custody for many months, and now charges are being brought against the most successful professional footballer in the world – at least in terms of titles. The Brazilian Olympic champion is said to have forced a woman to have sex.
A court in Barcelona has officially brought charges against Brazilian professional footballer Dani Alves over allegations of sexual aggression against a young woman. The regional court announced this after completing the almost ten-month investigation, as the newspaper “La Vanguardia” reported. A spokesman for the regional court in Barcelona confirmed this information upon request. There is no date for the trial yet. Alves faces a prison sentence of up to twelve years in Spain.
The former FC Barcelona professional has been in custody in the Catalan metropolis since January. The former wife and manager of the 126-time national player and their two children live in Barcelona.
A 23-year-old reported Alves. She accuses the Brazilian from Bahia of forcing her to have sex in a nightclub in Barcelona on December 30th. On January 20th, Alves was arrested while visiting Catalonia. He initially denied any sexual contact with the woman. His lawyer later stated that the sexual acts had taken place with the woman’s consent. Until his arrest, Alves had played for Mexican club UNAM Pumas.
FIFA lists 44 official titles for Alves, which he collected over the course of his career with FC Barcelona in Europe and with Juventus Turin and Paris Saint-Germain. This collection makes him the most successful professional footballer in the world. He won the Champions League three times and led the Brazilian team to Olympic victory in 2021. Alves played 408 competitive games for FC Barcelona alone; of all the foreign players in the club’s great history, only Argentine superstar Lionel Messi appeared more often for the Catalans. The defender scored eight goals in 126 international matches for Brazil.
He had announced a few more titles a year and a half before his arrest: “50! I think that would be fantastic, a historic success. I hope that I can reach 50 before I hang up my football boots.” he said in an interview with fifa.com in the summer of 2021.