Former football legend Dani Alves, renowned for his time at Barcelona and Brazil, could potentially serve a nine-year prison sentence if found guilty of sexually assaulting a woman in a Spanish nightclub.

Prosecutors are advocating for this sentence, accompanied by £130,000 in damages and 10 years of probation, as the case advances to the trial stage in Spain.

Alves, aged 40, was arrested on January 20 and has been held in a prison near Barcelona.

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The former Sevilla, Juventus, and Paris Saint-Germain defender vehemently denies the allegations, asserting that the encounter was consensual.

Despite his insistence, Alves, who changed his testimony on four occasions, was ordered to stand trial earlier this month.

The incident in question occurred on December 30 in the bathroom of the Sutton nightclub in Barcelona.

Alves, playing for the Mexican club UNAM at the time, was denied bail by judges in January, deeming him a flight risk. Subsequently, UNAM terminated his contract.

In response to the charges, Alves stated, ‘It will be proven that I am not guilty and it was a consensual relationship. It would never cross my mind to impose a sexual act on anyone.’

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Meanwhile, his wife, model Joana Sanz, seemingly confirmed their separation in a social media post dated March 15.

In a handwritten letter, she expressed the challenges of erasing his memory from her mind and declared herself a strong woman moving on to the next stage of her life.”