Dani Alves is being one of the sensations at FC Barcelona after his unexpected return to his home for eight seasons. The Brazilian granted an interview for the newspaper Sports world in which he reviewed how he is experiencing this second stage at Can Barça.
The defender acknowledged that he spent some time trying to return to Barcelona without success before Laporta crossed his path: “It’s better than I expected. I fought for a long time to make it happen. It didn’t happen when I wanted it to. You know and know what I can contribute and what I have always contributed on and off the pitch. Suddenly, everything went downhill and we met again”.
Alves and Xavi landed again at the Camp Nou almost hand in hand and the Brazilian admits that in this time the coach has managed to give the dressing room a facelift: “When I arrived, there were a lot of people with a lot of quality individually speaking, but in the end the collective was dispersed, it was not able to compete, to do things well, to connect, to represent the collective well. The feeling I had from outside was the same as the one I found. Thanks to everyone’s predisposition, we have turned around to that. We are in the best moment of the season and we have to go for more”.
Barça is having a great end to the season, reaching second place and hasn’t ruled out the possibility of winning LaLiga: “I always say that as long as it doesn’t finish, there’s an option. You have to be realistic, the difference is important, but it’s also true that we are at the best moment of the season just when it is needed. Perhaps after our game and the tie they have, let’s see how it goes, they will have that little slump and it would be time to take advantage. They get twelve points, it’s complicated, but We are there”.
One of the great joys of the Catalans this season was the victory at the Bernabéu: “We weren’t just celebrating the victory in Madrid, they said that for Barça it was a title to win there… We were celebrating the bathroom that we beat them, my 400 matches and the return of the team. Don’t let the people of Madrid think that we were celebrating that we scored 4, because other times we scored five, or six… And it was cheap…”.
“0-6. Because of the chances we had, that of Ferrán, Auba, Dembélé, they were very clear chances. But hey, for us much more than the victory was sending a message, Barça was coming back”, he added.
Facing the transfer market, Alves is clear when choosing between Mbappé or Haaland: “I wouldn’t throw the rest for Haaland. Honestly, I wouldn’t spend a lot of money on him. Mbappé yes, but not Haaland. I’m playing at being a sports director, eh, but I would bet on Mbappé first. He seems more complete in all aspects. If you are going to make a giant investment, you have to do it in the best way. If it were up to me, I would bet on Mbappé” .
Dani Alves was chosen by Xavi to stay out of the Europa League, a painful decision but one that the player understands: “I always understood that life consists of phases and I know what phase I am in now, closer to the end than the beginning. If he does this to me when I’m 25 years old, we might get into fistfights… but now we’re here to help Barça and I know it hurt him to have to make the decision to leave me out.”
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