Dani Alves invests in Portuguese third division club

Former Barcelona and Brazil right-back Dani Alves, whose rape conviction was overturned last year, has invested in Portuguese third-division side Sporting Clube Sao Joao de Ver, the club announced.

“In a moment that will go down in the club’s history, we are officially announcing the arrival of Dani Alves as co-owner of the SAD (public limited sports company) of Sporting Clube Sao Joao de Ver,” the club said in a statement posted on their Facebook page late Thursday.

Founded in 1929, Sao Joao de Ver are based in the northern city of Santa Maria da Feira.

According to the sports news website MaisFutebol, the 42-year-old Brazilian has acquired 50 percent of the capital of the club’s SAD, and is set to buy the remaining half at the end of the current season.

The same source also indicated Alves may return to action and play for Sao Joao de Ver for the next six months.

The three-time Champions League winner has not played since January 2023, when he was dismissed by Mexican club Pumas due to the case that led to a first-instance conviction for rape, which was later overturned.

Alves was sentenced to four-and-a-half years in jail in February 2024 after being found guilty of raping a young woman in the VIP bathroom of a Barcelona nightclub on December 31, 2022.

But a Barcelona appeals court overturned the lower court’s ruling in March last year, outraging feminist groups and some members of Spain’s left-wing government.

It said the trial had inconsistencies and contradictions and there was insufficient evidence to prove the guilt of Alves, who had always maintained the sexual relations were consensual.

Alves was jailed from his arrest in January 2023 until March 2024, when he was released pending his appeal after he posted the one-million-euros ($1.1 million) bail set by the courts.