Dani Alves in line for 250th Barça LaLiga appearance vs. Athletic

Dani Alves returns to the Barcelona squad for Sunday's game against Athletic Club after four games out. The Brazilian missed the league games against Espanyol and Valencia through suspension, while he is not registered for the Europa League, so could not feature against Napoli.

Now, back in the squad, he is in line to make his 250th LaLiga appearance for Barça. In his first spell at the club, between 2008 and 2016, he played 247 times in the league. In all competitions, if he plays against Athletic, as expected, he will make his 397th Barça appearance, leaving him just three short of the 400 club.

Alves, 38, would likely have already reached the 250 game milestone if he had not been sent off against Atletico Madrid earlier in February. The two game banned ruled him out of the 2-2 draw at Espanyol and the 4-1 win at Valencia. He didn't feature in the Europa League vs. Napoli as Barça could not register him for European competitions.

Top 24 (in LaLiga)

Alves, when he hits 250 game in LaLiga, will be the 24th Barça player to hit that number. Ahead of him he has José María Bakero (260), Lobo Carrasco (262), Pep Guardiola (263), Sergi Barjuan (267) and Antoni Torres (270) as his immediate targets.

Leo Messi (520) has played the most LaLiga games for the Catalan club, followed by Xavi Hernández (505), Andrés Iniesta (442), Sergio Busquets (436), Carles Puyol (392), Migueli (391), Víctor Valdés (387) and Gerard Piqué (384).

Alves returned to Barça on Nov. 17 2021 and was presented in front of over 10,000 supporters. He has a contract until the end of the season.