AT 36 years young, Brazil captain Dani Alves could be forgiven if he was thinking of hanging up his boots and admiring his bursting trophy cabinet.
Instead, Alves is preparing to play a key role when Brazil take on Peru in Sunday’s Copa America final at Rio de Janeiro’s Maracana stadium, and the full-back is showing no signs of letting up.
“I know how old I am, and I know what that means in football, but I’ve learnt that people want results,” said Alves, currently without a club having announced last month he was leaving Paris Saint-Germain.
“I’m focussed on that, I’m not focussing on my age nor what people think of me.
“I’m not here to shut anyone up, I’m simply here to do my job.”
As it is, his trophy cabinet already contains one Copa America title and according to some lists, more trophies than years he’s been alive.
He has won the Champions League three times, the old Uefa Cup twice, the Club World Cup three times, European Super Cup four times – and that’s just at European continental club level.
Six La Liga crowns with Barcelona, two French Ligue 1 titles with Paris Saint-Germain and one Serie A with Juventus, not to mention eight domestic cups across Spain, France and Italy.
With Brazil he won the 2007 Copa America and two Confederations Cups.
Any suggestions he might be satisfied with what he’s won so far were dispelled within 20 minutes of Tuesday’s 2-0 semifinal victory over Argentina when he took three Argentina players out of the game in creating the opening for Roberto Firmino to cross for Gabriel Jesus to open the scoring in Belo Horizonte.
Alves’ skill was a thing of beauty as he latched onto a dropping ball, chipped it over the head of Marcus Acuna, sent a sliding Leandro Paredes the wrong way and then left Nicolas Tagliafico chasing shadows with a no-look pass to Firmino. – AFP
