Dani Alves Speaks On FC Barcelona Future, Club’s Decline And Benzema For Ballon d’Or

FC Barcelona star Dani Alves has spoken on his future at the club, its fall from grace in recent years, and the lead candidate for the Ballon d’Or in Real Madrid’s Karim Benzema.

Alves talked to MAR
AR
CA in an interview published on Saturday morning in Spain, and was asked to comment on what had changed at Barca in the time between his 2016 exit and return in the recent January transfer window as a 38-year-old who has just turned 39.

“For me what changed at Barca is that they got carried away by the tide,” Alves said.

“Football has been changing and the club mistakenly wanted to change and follow this tide. But if you have a solid base, you don’t have to adapt to what comes up or [what becomes] fashion because then you will be vulnerable.”

Alves insisted that Barca has a strong core of young players which they should build off, “because it is their strength”.

“Football has been changing and started to buy and sell, and that is not Barca,” Alves protested, insisting that the Blaugrana should rely on their youth and compliment them with experienced players to make a “more solid” squad.

“That is the process of change that I have seen at Barca, and now we are trying to recover what was [there] before,” he finished on this.

With his contract expiring in June, Alves’ future is up in the air but he tries to live “intensely” day to day without giving the topic much thought.

“What is certain is that I would like to continue because here I am at home, I am in the club, and in the team for which I have had to fight for five years to return [to],” he stated.

“And I think I can continue contributing things for them, but it doesn’t depend on me. And I’m not too worried either. My mission was to come here and show what I can contribute.”

“I’m not one of those who think that for my whole career and for everything I’ve won I don’t have to prove anything to anyone, no. I always think I have to prove my worth. I can’t do anything else but give 200 percent to the club I love and love madly.”

“But it’s up to them to decide,” Alves conceded. “I know where I am in my life and my career, but I also know what I have inside. And I think the one who doesn’t have me loses. I raised that level not of arrogance but of self-knowledge. If Barca wants me to renew, I’m delighted. If they don’t want to, thank you very much, and I will continue to defend this club to the death wherever it is.”

Rivalries aside, Alves revealed that he congratulated former Brazil teammate Marcelo on winning La Liga with Real Madrid and has also tipped their striker, Karim Benzema, to succeed Alves’ close friend Lionel Messi as the holder of the Ballon d’Or.

“He has everything to win for what he is doing,” said Alves. “But the Champions League is going to have a lot of influence. If he wins it, he’s a serious candidate, though there are other names as well. At City, at Liverpool… there are players who can fight for it.

“He is earning it, because he has taken Real Madrid to places that it was not before in terms of play and other facets,” Alves concluded.