Former Barcelona and Sevilla player Dani Alves dominated the headlines in Spain and Brazil after one of the most high-profile court cases involving a footballer in some time. The second most decorated footballer in history was sentenced to four and a half years in prison last week after being convicted of rape.
Alves, 40, was found guilty of rape in the bathroom of a Barcelona nightclub, and in addition to his stay in prison, he paid the victim €150,000 in damages, and will be on probation for nine years, and has a restraining order. from the victim for 12 years. It is reported that Neymar Junior's family helped pay the damages for Alvesa factor in his sentence that is not 9 or 12 years, as requested respectively by the prosecutor and the victim.
It made Alves a public pariah, where before he was seen as a hero – this was seen in his hometown in Brazil. In Juazeiro in Bahia, a statue of the footballer was defaced with white paint, and second Sport, had plastic bags over his head. On social media, some have called for the statue to be removed.