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Mon 01 February 2021 | 6:30

Dani Alves Biography

In this article of SportMob, we take a look at Dani Alves biography, who is the most decorated footballer in the history and one of the best right-backs to ever play the game of football.

Daniel Alves, born on May 6, 1983, in Juazeiro, a city in the north of the state of Bahia in Brazil, is a Brazilian international footballer who plays as a right-back. Dani Alves started playing football in his native Brazil at Palmeiras de Salitre, a small neighbourhood club in the village of Umbuzeiro, where he played as a midfielder.

He was later moved to the right-back and in 1999 he was recruited by Esporte Clube Bahia, a club with a higher sporting level. His good performances enabled him to be spotted by European clubs and he joined the Spanish club Sevilla FC in the summer of 2002.

He spent six years there and won numerous titles including two UEFA Cups, a Copa del Rey and a Spanish Supercup. During this period, he was called up for the first time to the Brazilian first team on 7 October 2006 against

Kuwait

and won his first trophy with this team the following year, the Copa America.

After winning this trophy, he joined FC Barcelona for thirty-two million euros in 2008, becoming the third most expensive defender in history, after Rio Ferdinand's transfer from

Leeds United

to Manchester United in 2002 and Thiago Silva's transfer from AC Milan to Paris Saint-Germain in 2012.

With the Barcelona team, Dani Alves won more titles, and in 2009, he and the club won six trophies: Champions League, La Liga, Copa del Rey, UEFA Super Cup, Spanish Super Cup and FIFA Club World Cup.

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All You Need to Know About Dani Alves Biography

Two years later, he won five titles again. He has made more than fifty assists individually in Barcelona, making him the best assist provider for Argentinian striker Lionel Messi, the club's all-time top scorer in official matches.

With the Brazilian national team, in addition to the Copa America win in 2007 and 2019, he won the Confederations Cup in 2009 and 2013, as well as the Under-20 World Cup in 2003.

Dani Alves Information

Now in this section of Dani Alves biography, we want to share some general information about him such as

Dani Alves nationality

so you can get to know him better. Stay tuned.

Dani Alves Bio

  • Full Name: Daniel Alves da Silva

  • Nickname: The Tarantula

  • Profession: Professional Footballer

Dani Alves Physical Stats

  • Weight: 70 Kg

  • Height: 1.72 m

  • Eye Color: Black

  • Hair Color: Black

Dani Alves Football Information

  • Position: Defender

  • Jersey Number: 10, 2

  • Professional Debut: 2001

Dani Alves Date of Birth and Personal Info

  • Date of Birth: 6 May 1983

  • Birth Place: Juazeiro, Brazil

  • Zodiac Sign: Taurus

  • Nationality: Brazil

Now stay tuned as we are going to take a deeper look into Dani Alves biography and share some information about

Dani Alves childhood

.

Dani Alves Early Life

Born on 6 May 1983 in the municipality of Juazeiro in the Brazilian state of Bahia, Dani Alves' father Domingos Alves worked as a farmer and helped his son in every way he could to develop as a footballer. Daniel initially played as a forward where he was not the most effective.

After his father founded a local junior football team, Domingo moved his son to the right-back position. He has played in that position ever since. In his youth, Alves worked as a farmer and salesman.

In his spare time, Dani, like all Brazilian boys, played football and at the age of 13, he found himself at the Juazeiro football school. At one of the youth tournaments, Alves was spotted by Bahia's scouts and he joined the club's youth team before signing his first professional contract in 2001.

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Dani Alves Profile

Dani Alves made his professional career start in 2001 with EC Bahia, for whom he made his first-team debut at the age of 18. For the 2002/03 season, he was loaned out to

Sevilla FC

for six months. He then took part in the 2003 FIFA World Youth Championship, which he won with

Brazil

and was voted the third-best player in the tournament. Sevilla FC then signed him on a permanent basis for a fee of one million euros.

In his first two years at his new club, he played mainly as a right-sided midfielder, as he was still outshined by the up-and-coming Sergio Ramos, among others. However, Alves' breakthrough came in the 2005/06 season, when he won the UEFA Cup and was voted the best player of the tournament. Not unexpectedly, Liverpool FC was therefore interested in him, but requests were turned down. In December 2006, Alves extended his contract until 2012.

Dani Alves also played the following 2006/07 season successfully; he finished third in the league and won the UEFA Cup again. In the summer of 2007, he became a Spanish citizen, opening a place for another non-EU player at Sevilla FC. In August 2007, Alves told Spanish magazine Marca that he would like to leave Sevilla for a big club and that he could not refuse an offer from Chelsea FC. However, Sevilla FC rejected the three offers from

Chelsea FC

(who offered up to €40 million) on the grounds that the bids were too low.

As Sevilla's president del Nido reportedly was about to ruin Alves' lifelong dream, this all turned into a public war between then club president Del Nido and Daniel Alves, but at this point, the tragic death of Antonio Puerta intervened in their conflict. Antonio and Dani were teammates and friends. "Chelsea changed their mind about buying the Sevilla player and bought Julian Beletti from

Barcelona

for less, and Del Nido and Dani made peace. The player stayed on for another season.

The 2007/08 season did not start so well for Alves due to fluctuations in form, and he only returned to his top form at the end of the season, helping to lead his team to the

Champions League

round of 16 and securing at least one more UEFA Cup place in the league.

Now stay tuned as we are going to take a deeper look into

Dani Alves biography

and share some information about his Barca career.

Barcelona

In June 2008 it was announced that the Brazilian defender will move to Barcelona for a transfer fee of 32 million euros, plus various bonuses based on achievements, which will raise the transfer fee to 40 million. In a press conference on 1 July 2008, Alves bid farewell to Sevilla, thanking the team for everything they had given him; the next day he moved to Barcelona, with whom he made his debut in official matches on 13 August 2008, in the third qualifying round of the UEFA Champions League against Wisla Krakow.

His debut in the Spanish

La Liga

with the Barcelona shirt was on 31 August 2008 against

Numancia

. On 13 May 2008, he won the

Copa del Rey

for the second time, while three days later he won the La Liga for the first time after

Real Madrid

defeated Villarreal. On 27 May, Alves was also crowned European champion by winning the Champions League at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome against

Manchester United

but missed the final after receiving a yellow card in the semi-final second leg against Chelsea.

At the beginning of the 2009-2010 season, he won the Spanish

Super Cup

against

Athletic Bilbao

and the first European Super Cup against Shakhtar. On 19 December 2009, he won the Club World Cup with Barcelona against Estudiantes; this victory allowed the Catalan team to become the first and only team in the history of football to achieve the sextuple, or to excel in all six competitions played in the calendar year. At the end of the season, he also won his second Spanish La Liga.

On 21 August 2010, he won the Spanish Super Cup against his former team, Sevilla. In the 2010-2011 season, Barcelona was again at a high level and Dani Alves, with his performances, contributed to winning the Champions League against Manchester United (as he had done two years earlier) and the La Liga.

On 17 August 2011, he won the Spanish Super Cup against Real Madrid. On 25 January 2012, in the Copa del Rey match against Real Madrid, he scored the 2-0 goal for Barcelona, which allowed the Catalan team to qualify for the semi-finals. In the final on 25 May, he won the Spanish Cup for the third time against Athletic Bilbao (3-0). He changed his shirt number for the 2012-2013 season, taking the number 22 shirt from Eric Abidal. On 21 August 2013, he provided an assist to teammate Neymar for his first goal in the Barcelona jersey in the first leg of the Spanish Super Cup in Madrid against Atlético (1-1). Dani Alves also played in the return match which sealed Barcelona's victory of the trophy.

On 27 April 2014, during the league match Villarreal-Barcelona, as he was about to take a corner kick, a banana was thrown at him from the stands. Dani Alves, without getting upset, responded to this clearly racist gesture in a unique way: he picked up the banana, peeled it and ate it, continuing to play.

The incident caused a great echo in the media and the attitude of the player became a symbol of the fight against racism, so much so that Dani Alves, as a sign of solidarity, was imitated on social networks by many other players, other sportsmen and even personalities not related to the world of football.

On 17 September 2014, in the match that they won 1-0 at home against APOEL in the Champions League, he reached 300 appearances in all competitions with the Barcelona shirt. On 17 May 2015, thanks to the away win against Atlético Madrid, he won the Spanish league for the fifth time with the Barcelona jersey. On 30 May, he won the Copa del Rey for the fourth time, thanks to the 3-1 win against Athletic Bilbao, while on 6 June, he won the UEFA Champions League for the third time, beating Juventus 3-1 in Berlin with his teammates.

In the 2015-2016 season, he decided to wear the number 6 shirt left from Xavi. He began the new season by winning the UEFA Super Cup against Sevilla. It was Alves's fourth individual victory, one short of the record of five wins held by Paolo Maldini.

On 2 June 2016, Barcelona announced on their official website that the player had made the decision to leave the Catalan club.

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Juventus

Dani Alves moved to

Juventus

Turin in the Italian Serie A for the 2016/17 season. He received a two-year contract until 30 June 2018 with an option for a further season. Alves played his first competitive match for Juve on 6 August 2016 in a friendly against West Ham United.

In Serie A, Alves made his debut on 20 August 2016, the first matchday of the 2016/17 season, at home to AC Florence. Alves also scored his first goal for Juve in Serie A. On matchday five, 21 September 2016, in a home match against Cagliari Calcio, he scored on Miralem Pjanić's assist in the 39th minute to make it 4-0 in the half-time (final score 4-0).

On 14 September 2016, Alves made his first appearance with Juve in a competitive match at international club level where in the first match of the 2016/17 UEFA Champions League group stage, the club faced Sevilla FC. Less than two weeks later on 27 September, Alves scored the first goal in the competition in the away match against Dinamo Zagreb, he scored in the 85th minute to make the final score 4-0.

In the league match against CFC Genoa on 27 November 2016, Alves suffered a fractured fibula, which kept him out for several months. In early February 2017, Alves was back on the pitch for Juve for the first time. In the home league match against Inter Milan, he was substituted for Stephan Lichtsteiner in the 80th minute. With Juve, Alves reached the 2017 UEFA Champions League final, where the club lost 4-1 to Real Madrid.

After winning the league and cup with Juve, he announced the termination of that contract on 27 June 2017. Now stay tuned as we are going to take a deeper look into Dani Alves biography and share some information about his PSG career.

PSG

On 12 July 2017,

Paris Saint-Germain

officially announced the arrival of the Brazilian in the Paris club. He signed a two-year contract and was given the number 32.

In his first official match for PSG, Dani Alves, who had been given an exceptional start as right-winger, scored his first goal and delivered his first assist for PSG against AS Monaco in the Champions Trophy. He was elected man of the match after the match. On 27 September 2017, he opened the score against Bayern Munich in the Champions League (3-0 victory). On 6 February 2018, following the dismissal of Kevin Trapp, he took the gloves and moved into the goal. On 18 March 2018, in Nice, he scored the winning goal (1-2) for the club.

On 8 May 2018, Daniel Alves was injured during the French Cup final against Les Herbiers (0-2 victory). Struck down with a knee ligament, he was unavailable for six months and had to withdraw for the World Cup in Russia.

For the 2018-2019 season, he took the number 13 as a tribute to former Brazilian coach Mário Zagallo and said: "I always like to change the numbers and honour the people who inspire me, who represent something in my life. This time it's for our idol, the unforgettable Zagallo. He has done so much for our football, he knows how hard it is to succeed and he always encourages others. He deserves my respect and admiration ".

While still injured during the recovery, he saw the arrival of Thomas Tuchel, whom he appreciated as a head coach. Dani Alves made his return to the field on 24 November 2018 against Toulouse.

In the Champions League, Alves played exceptionally as a right-winger, a position he held when he was a youngster at Barca. Alves played a good match against Manchester United and Paris won 2-0.

On 23 June 2019, he announced on Instagram that he was leaving Paris.

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Sao Paulo

On 2 August 2019, on the same social network, Alves announced his return to his home country and signing a contract with Sao Paulo. This was the second part of his dream that came true after his glorious years in Barcelona.

In his first year, the former Barcelona star played twenty matches in the Brazilian Serie A, all as a regular and practically all of them in full. By the time he had scored two goals and delivered three assists.

Brazil National Team

On 7 October 2006, Alves made his debut for the Brazilian national team in the unofficial international match against al Kuwait SC. He played his first official international match on 10 October 2006 against Ecuador. He won the

Copa América

with them in 2007. In the final against Argentina, Alves scored the last goal to make it 3-0; he also assisted one of the goals.

In the 2009 Confederations Cup win, he scored the decisive goal in the semi-final against hosts South Africa to advance to the final. Alves came on as an 82nd-minute substitute and scored in the 88th minute with a free-kick from 18 meters out. In May 2010, he was named in the squad for the World Cup in South Africa by national team coach Carlos Dunga. However, he was replaced at right-back in the run-up to the tournament by Maicon, who did not miss a single minute of the tournament.

Alves played in all the matches but was only substituted in the first two group games. From the game against Portugal onwards, he was used as a right defensive midfielder by coach Carlos Dunga. The Brazilian team was eliminated by the Netherlands in the quarter-finals. On 14 August 2013, he was involved in Brazil's first defeat against the Swiss national team when he scored an own goal in the 48th minute for a 1-0 final score in a friendly match in Basel.

On 8 May 2014, he was called up to the Brazilian national football team squad for the 2014 World Cup by Brazilian national coach Luiz Felipe Scolari. At that tournament, he played all the group stage matches and the round of 16 as a right-back alongside Thiago Silva. It was not until the quarter-finals that Scolari again deployed Maicon in this position. On 15 November 2016, Alves played for the national team for the 100th time in the World Cup qualifier against Peru.

For the 2019 Copa América matches, Alves was named captain of the team by national coach Tite. He replaced the previous captain, Neymar. In the course of the team's title win, Alves played in all six matches (one goal) and was voted best player of the tournament in the final.

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Style of Play

A right-back with excellent technique, good speed and physical endurance, he can also play in the outside midfield and on the wings. In his career he has shown excellent consistency and has achieved very good success in scoring goals, having collected a large number of assists and goals. In addition, he is a good free kicker from medium and long distances.

Reception

As the most decorated professional player in the history of football, Dani Alves has established himself as one of the best right-backs in the world and many fans and football critics agree with this.

Goal Celebration

Despite playing mostly as a defender during his career, Dani Alves has scored more than 60 goals at club level. As he never had a signature goal celebration, we have often seen many different goal celebrations from Dani Alves. Now stay tuned as we are going to take a deeper look into

Dani Alves biography

and share some information about his life outside football.

Dani Alves outside Football

Dani Alves is a true fan of car racing. In fact, if he hadn't been a footballer, Daniel Alves would have liked to be a racing driver. Moreover, on 11 May 2013, the FC Barcelona defender took advantage of the Catalan Grand Prix to pay a courtesy visit to his Brazilian compatriot Felipe Massa.

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Dani Alves Personal Life

In this section of

Dani Alves biography

, we will take a look at his personal life and share some information from his life such as

Dani Alves religion

and

Dani Alves life story

.

Family, Children and Relationships

Dani Alves was married to Dinorah, with whom he had two children named Victoria and Daniel. She is also his agent, but the couple divorced since 2011.

He also had a relationship with the Israeli model Bar Refaeli in 2012. For several months, her increasingly regular presence at the Camp Nou had intrigued the Spanish press. The information has spread so much that Dani Alves felt obliged to deny it on his Twitter account: "I would like to inform that all the information that comes out about a possible relationship with Bar Rafaeli is totally false and I would like all the media to check their information before publishing it!."

In the spring of 2016, Daniel Alves and his partner Joana Sanz had celebrated a mock wedding. Since this was unofficial, they were officially married on 8 July 2017.

Philanthropy

Dani Alves is usually involved with many charitable works both in his home country and in Europe. In 2015, Dani Alves released a rap charity single named ‘You’re Special’ alongside with Jose Pinto, the Barcelona goalkeeper at the time. He has also participated in many charity matches during his career.

Legal Issues

In 2016, Dani Alves publicly criticized the press and publicly referred to Spanish media as “Fuc*** Rubbish” because they treat footballers like objects and just try to sell their newspapers. Following this, The Spanish Sports Press Association has announced that they are going to take legal action against Dani Alves.

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Dani Alves Career Statistics

In this section of Dani Alves biography, we will take a look at his career stats as a player on both club and international level. Stay tuned.

Club

Since he started his professional career with Bahia in 2001, Dani Alves has played more than 852 matches for six different clubs in South America and Europe, scoring 64 goals. The peak of his career was definitely his 8 season spell at Barcelona where he went on to play 391 matches and scored 21 goals in all competitions.

International

Between 2006 and 2019, Dani Alves has represented his country on 118 matches and managed to score 8 goals. His best year with the national team was 2009 and 2010 when he scored 4 goals in 26 matches for Brazil.

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Dani Alves Honors

As the most decorated footballer in the world, the list of Dani Alves’ awards and titles is so long. At club level, we can include Copa del Rey, UEFA Cup, La Liga, UEFA Champions League, Serie A, Ligue 1 and

FIFA Club World Cup

, among many others.

With Brazil national team, he has also won Copa América, FIFA Confederations Cup and the FIFA World Youth Championship.

Of his individual titles and awards, we can mention UEFA Cup Most Valuable Player, UEFA Team of the Year, France Football World XI, La Liga team of the season and many others.


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