DISGRACED footballer Dani Alves has returned £130,000 he borrowed from Neymar’s family to get his rape sentence slashed, his lawyer revealed.
The former Barcelona full-back, 40, used the money to mitigate his sentence after he was convicted for raping a woman in a nightclub toilet.
Alves spent just four weeks of his sentence behind bars after his rape conviction – stumping up £850,000 to be released on bail.
He has now returned €150,000 (£128,000) he had borrowed from Neymar to mitigate his sentence.
The footballer’s lawyer, Inés Guardiola, told Brazilian paper Folha de S. Paulo he used the amount as a “mitigation to repair the damage caused”.
The money was an attempt to get Alves’ prison time cut in half, but it is not known how much the compensation influenced the sentence.
Guardiola added that, as his assets in Brazil were blocked, Alves asked pals to help hand over the money to court. One of the helping hands was the Al-Hilal star.
“Dani Alves returned the €150,000 to Neymar a week ago,” she said on Wednesday.
A helping hand
Neymar’s dad had previously opened up about helping Alves with a six-figure assistance, saying it was “a burden he preferred to have”.
Neymar Santos Sr told CNN: “The family asked us for help. Daniel didn’t have the money to defend himself, and the deadline for paying the defense was expiring.
“Think about it, at no time could I deny help to a friend who is trying to defend himself against an accusation.”
It is understood the amount provided was around $164,000 (£131,000), EssentiallySports reports.
Neymar Sr added: “Daniel is in pre-trial detention and has not been tried.
“To date, the presumption of innocence is valid throughout the world. I couldn’t turn my back… What if the court decides that Daniel is innocent?
“I preferred having the burden of believing in a friend than turning my back on someone.”
There is still no confirmation of who paid the player’s bail to be provisionally released.
But Neymar’s dad was quick to shut down claims he was all but ready to assist Alves and pay for the hefty bail price.
He issued a brutal 11-word statement confirming he refused to pay the convicted rapist’s £850,000 bail.
Neymar Santos Sr said in a family statement: “For us, for my family, this matter is over. Full stop.”
It continued: “With the Spanish court ruling for his conviction, there’s speculation and an attempt to associate my name and my son’s to a matter that is not within our reach any longer.”
Before adding that Neymar Sr hopes Alves “can find all the answers he looks for in his own family”.
Beast’s ‘comeback’
After being spotted arriving in court trying to go incognito, Alves is now hoping for a shocking football comeback, it has been claimed.
Looking to restore his public image, he wants to eventually make a shocking comeback to the sport, El Pais reports.
Spanish journalist Jesus Garcia Bueno, who has covered the case extensively, claims that he doesn’t expect to return as a player on the field itself.
He was freed from prison near Barcelona in March on bail after serving a few weeks of his four-and-a-half year sentence.
Alves is reportedly spending most of his time hunkering down in his £4m Spanish home with estranged wife Joana Sanz.
But the former footballer did recently visit a high-end Barcelona hotel, enjoying wagyu beef steak with a friend, El Periodico reports.
The pair reportedly dined on a variety of expensive dishes from the steakhouse restaurant as Alves spoke to press about his parole terms.
Alves told a reporter he has to “play a game” in court during weekly appearances while on bail.
He said: “It’s what I have to do. Every Friday I go to court and that’s it. I don’t have much else to do either.
“The game I have to play is in the courts.”
The 40-year-old also boasted about his experience in prison, saying “Wherever I go I survive”.
“I adapt to everything because for me it is not the place that makes the person, but the person that makes the place,” he went on.
Struggling financially since losing his income and hefty sponsorship, the shamed footballer does not expect football clubs or companies to return even if he is acquitted, El Pais reports.
It is not clear exactly in what role he plans to return to the world of professional football.
