• Dani Alves is a former player for Brazil and Barcelona.
• He was ordered to remain in custody pending his alleged rape trial.
• The court believes that seizing Alves’s will not prevent him from fleeing Spain.

Dani Alves, a former player for Brazil and Barcelona, was ordered to remain in custody pending his alleged rape trial by the Provincial Court of Barcelona on Tuesday due to his high flight risk.

“There is an elevated risk of absconding, linked on the one hand to the high sentence that could be imposed as a result of the current case, the serious evidence of criminality against him, and large financial resources that would allow him to flee Spain at any time,” the court said in a statement.

The court believes that seizing the 39-year-passport old’s will not prevent him from fleeing Spain “by air, sea, or even land without documentation.”

The court believes that if he were to return to Brazil, his country of origin, he would not be turned over to Spain because the South American nation rarely extradites its citizens.

The office of the public prosecutor objected to his release.

On January 2, a young woman accused Alves of sexually assaulting her at the end of December in a nightclub bathroom in Barcelona.

According to sources familiar with the case, the player, who initially denied knowing her, changed his story several times before finally admitting that they had consensual relations.

Alves is on trial for a charge of sexual assault, which includes rape according to Spanish law.

On January 20, the investigating judge made the decision to remand him in custody without bail, taking into account, among other things, the inconsistencies in his initial statements and the significant risk of fleeing the country.

After his arrest, Alves’ Mexican club Pumas UNAM fired him.

Alves made 408 appearances for Barcelona over the course of a highly successful career, 391 of which came during his first stint from 2008 to 2016.

He won six La Liga championships, three Champions League trophies, and four Copa del Rey trophies during that first season.

He made history by becoming the oldest player to play for Brazil in the World Cup finals in Qatar last year.

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