■ Uefa Champions League semi-final, second leg: Juventus (2) v Monaco (0), Tuesday at 10.45pm on beIN Sports
An ambush awaited Dani Alves late on Saturday night. He had watched his Juventus draw 1-1 with Torino, rested on the bench with Tuesday night’s Champions League semi-final second leg against Monaco in mind, and was making his exit, in his sharp suit and his baseball cap, from the dressing-room.
In the corridor, he was surprised. Whistles and hooters were blown and balloons blocked his path. Happy birthday, Dani! A cake had been placed on a small table, with candles spelling out the age he had reached that day. Dani Alves, 34 years young.
It is a venerable age for most sportsmen, although in the Juventus dressing room to which Alves brought his lively humour, cheery playlists and infectious energy last summer, it barely qualifies as senior, not when Gigi Buffon, 39, and Andrea Barzagli, 36, are among the head prefects. The years certainly do not drag on a man whose live wire energy and instincts for innovation are a principal reason why Juve find themselves on the brink of the Uefa Champions League final.
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Alves set up both of Gonzalo Higuain’s goals in the 2-0 first leg win at Monaco six days ago, the first with a firm, accurate, bold back-heel, the second with a more orthodox cross, one of a stream he had directed, right to left, in the course of a game that showcased why and how Alves has mastered his position as well as anybody in the sport over the last decade.
Quite how you define his position is another matter. ‘Right-back’ seems too restrictive a term; ‘wing-back’ undervalues how brilliantly effective he can be when he moves into the inside forward channels and into central midfield.
When Alves left Barcelona to join Juventus on a free transfer, his contract with the Catalan club having wound down after a series of frustrated and often vexed negotiations about extending his stay at Barca beyond his eight magnificent seasons there, he was following a well-trodden path.
Fellow Brazilians like Ronaldinho and Rivaldo left Barcelona and moved to Italy — to AC Milan in their cases — where it became apparent they had passed their peaks. Had Alves passed his? Would he fit in at Juve? After all, this most adventurous of defenders was coming into a club whose organisational routines at the back were famously well drilled.
They still are. Alves suffered some setbacks in his early months, notably a shin injury that kept him out of action through December, but as Juventus close in on a possible Treble — they can wrap up the Serie A title on Sunday — he has made himself a leading actor in what is the most creative and exciting Juve of any on the last six, title-winning years.
“He is playing world-class football,” said Max Allegri, the Juventus manager. “Technically, he is at the same level as Leo Messi,” Giorgio Chiellini said, another weathered member of the Juventus back four.
Chiellini acknowledges that, swapping Barcelona for Juventus, Alves found himself at a club with different priorities.
“At the beginning he found it hard at times,” Chiellini said last week. “But game by game he has grown into the team. And he’s a sunny personality, always smiling, always doing things at 2,000 kilometres per hour. To our culture it can seem a bit crazy sometimes, but he is a superb professional.”
Barcelona miss him, as their fans realised poignantly as Alves’s new club overwhelmed his old one in the quarter-final of this Champions League. Alves, right now, does not miss the stream of trophies his golden era at Barca all but guaranteed.
He won six Primera Liga titles, four Copas del Rey and three Champions Leagues in his eight seasons at Camp Nou. He was a major catalyst for Barcelona’s pre-eminence, winning every title Barcelona competed for in his first 18 months at the club. His first season at Juventus could yet bring him the same full portfolio. He should expect to experience plenty more celebration over the coming weeks.
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