Brazilian soccer player Dani Alves was sentenced to four and a half years in prison on Thursday for sexually assaulting a woman in a Barcelona nightclub in 2022.
The top court in Spain’s Catalonia region also ordered Alves to pay $163 000 to the victim.
“The sentence considers that it has been proven that the victim did not consent, and that there is evidence, in addition to the testimony of the plaintiff, to consider the rape proven,” the court said in a statement.
Alves had maintained throughout that the sex was consensual.
His lawyer, Ines Guardiola appeared outside the court following the sentencing to confirm he would appeal.
40-year-old Alves won more than 40 trophies for Brazil and clubs including Barcelona, Sevilla, Juventus and Paris St Germain.
Following his arrest in January 2023, his contract was terminated by Mexico’s Pumas UNAM, and he has been held on remand since.
The case has attracted significant attention not only because of Alves’ profile but because gender violence has become an increasingly dominant topic in Spain’s public discourse.
This has been one of the most high-profile trials in Spain since a law was passed in 2022 that made consent a key element in sexual assault cases and that increased the minimum prison time for assaults involving violence.
