Dani Alves cleared of raping lady as attraction guidelines on ‘contradictions’ in case
Ex-Barcelona and Brazil full-back Dani Alves has had his conviction of rape overturned by a top court in Spain’s Catalonia region after ‘contradictions’ in the case
Dani Alves has had his conviction of rape overturned by a Spanish court.
The Barcelona and Brazil legend was found guilty in February 2024 of raping a woman in a Barcelona nightclub in December 2022.
The full-back, 41, was sentenced to four-and-a-half years in prison, but he was released in March 2024 on a €1m bail while waiting for his appeal to be heard.
The married star – whose wife Joana Sanz separated from him after his conviction – denied any wrongdoing throughout the trial, claiming sex with the woman was consensual.
And a court has now said they had found “inconsistencies and contradictions” in the original ruling. On Friday, a court in Catalonia said there was “insufficient evidence” to rule out Alves’ presumption of innocence.
In its ruling overturning the verdict, the Catalan high court said the alleged victim’s testimony lacked reliability when referring to facts that could be objectively verified through video recordings.
The court added it “explicitly indicating that what she recounted does not correspond to reality”.
Alves was playing for Pumas UNAM in Mexico at the time of his arrest, and his contract was terminated as a result. He returned to Spain and as per his bail conditions surrendered his passport.
Alves – who has two children from his first marriage – is now free to leave Spain again after the court lifted a travel ban.
Alves is best known for his time at Barcelona – where he won six La Liga titles, four Copa del Rey’s and three Champions League titles. He also won Serie A and the Coppa Italia at Juventus and two Ligue 1’s and the Coupe de France with PSG.
On the international stage, he would pick up the Copa America twice (in 2007 and 2019), the Confederations Cup twice and he was part of the Brazilian Olympic team in Tokyo.
