Dani Alves gives first interview since arrest: I must apologise to my wife

Dani Alves is close to completing five months in Brians 2 prison. The first five months of what could be years in prison. While awaiting the decisive trial where it will be decided whether he is guilty of sexually assaulting a girl in the bathrooms of the Sutton discotheque, Alves remains behind bars.

Under a cap, this week Alves answered Mayka Navarro's questions for 'La Vanguardia' dressed in rigorous black, and an increasingly serious face, as he gave his first interview since being arrested.

Accused of sexual assault on a 23-year-old girl in the toilets of Sutton, Alves has tried to defend his innocence on numerous occasions with versions that contradicted each other and that did not manage to grant him provisional release. 

The footballer has been serving a pre-trial sentence for five months now, after the judge alleged that he was a flight risk and the evidence pointed to his guilt. It is the first time that the player has wanted to speak from prison

"I have decided to give this interview, my first interview since I have been here, so that people know what I think," he said.

"So that they know the story of what I experienced that night in that bathroom. Until now, a very frightening story of fear and terror has been told."

To the question "Why else would he decide to talk?" Alves continued with his version and only apologised to his wife, the main person affected by this story, in his opinion:

"The only person I have to apologise to is my wife, Joana Sanz," he said. "The woman I married eight years ago, to whom I am still married, and with whom I hope to continue living all my life.

"I have already apologised to her personally here in prison, but I must do it publicly, because the story is public, the offence is public and she deserves a public apology.

"These have been, are being and will be very hard days for her. I thank her for everything she is doing for me. Her role is not easy. I love her and during this time in prison I have thought a lot about our marriage.

"I am certain that I was not wrong to choose Joana as my wife. Although perhaps she did make a mistake with me."

What happened that night?

Before the magistrate, Alves said that he had previously agreed with the young woman that they would have sex in the bathroom and that "everything that happened and didn't happen in there only she and I know," but now Alves adds more details.

"That night when the woman with whom I have the problem comes out of the bathroom behind me, I stay for a while by my table," he explained.

"I don't stay long because it was late. I'm with my friend Bruno and I'm approached by other people before I leave. When I leave the club through the exit corridor, I know from the pictures that I pass near where the woman is crying. I didn't see her. If I had seen her crying I would have stopped to ask what was going on.

"At that moment, if someone in charge of the club had asked me to wait because a young woman claimed that I had sexually assaulted her, I would not have gone home. That same night I would have gone to the police station to clarify what had happened."

But the player, who maintains that the relations were consensual, went home and the next day found out that he had been reported. 

"Nobody said anything to me there," he continued. "I left Sutton calmly. I got home. I took a shower because my wife was already asleep and I was ashamed of my infidelity. I lathered up in anger. I went to sleep in another bed.

"I was returning to Mexico two days later to play and it was published in some media that a young woman was accusing Dani Alves of sexual assault. I phoned my lawyer, Miraida Puentes. She consulted with the Mossos and the courts and assured me that there was no complaint and that I could travel and leave Spain with complete peace of mind. That's why I left."

It was not the first time he had frequented Sutton, where the employees knew him: "Since 2008 it was a place I went to when I wanted to have a drink with my wife, with my friends. I know all the employees. All of them. The people in charge of the bar, the waiters. Everybody. And I thought they really appreciated me.

"My behaviour has always been exemplary. And because I've known them for so many years, I still don't understand how they acted that night."