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Higuita, Ronaldinho, Maradona, Benjamin Mendy… other footballers who went to jail before Dani Alves

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Dani Alves is currently in jail after being involved in a case of sexual assault. Unfortunately, he is not the first footballer who has ended up behind bars. We review other striking cases throughout history.

Dani Alves, a former player of FC Barcelona and Seville, has spent his first weekend in pretrial detention without bail by order of the head of the trial court number 15 in Barcelona for the accusation of having raped a 23-year-old girl on the night of the December 30 in the bathroom of the Sutton nightclub.

Ronaldinho was in prison for 171 days in Paraguay for falsifying passports.

Gabriel Cortez

The former Barcelona Sporting player entered pretrial detention in April 2022

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This midfielder for the Barcelona Sporting Club of Ecuador entered pretrial detention in April 2022 accused of being in a gang of hitmen.

Adam Johnson

He was sentenced to six years for having sexual relations with a minor. Six years old, he only turned three.

Benjamin Mendy

The former City player stepped in jail in 2021 accused of various rapes and sexual assault. He left her in January 2022 after posting bail. The trial declared him innocent.

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Semedo

The Portuguese central defender left the PIcasssent prison shortly before signing for Huesca after 142 days there, where he was in preventive detention accused of alleged crimes of attempted homicide, injuries, threats, illegal detention, illegal possession of weapons and robbery with violence

Vinicius ‘Breno’ Broges

In 2011, Breno burned down his house while drunk and was sentenced to three years in prison.

Nizar Trabelsi

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The Tunisian was related to Islamic terrorism and was sentenced to 10 years for being an accomplice in the attack on the Twin Towers

Bruno Fernandes de Souza

The goalkeeper asked that his partner be destroyed. The young woman’s body was never found and the footballer was sentenced in 2013 to 22 years in prison

Juanele

Pedrag Stankovic

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The former Hercules was in jail in 2009 after the “Cyclone operation” for drug trafficking

Jesus Emilio Diez ‘Txutxi’

For the same “Cyclone case” he was sentenced to nine years in prison.

Freddy Rincon

The ill-fated former Real Madrid player spent 123 days in prison for drug trafficking

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Lucas Viatri

The one from Boca was only under pressure for a month after being involved in a hairdresser

Edmund

The former Fiore player was sentenced to four years in prison for being involved in a fatal traffic accident, but in the end he only served one day.

Maradona

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In 1991 he was detained for cocaine use, shortly after he was released. Three years later, he also stepped in jail for a few hours due to a problem with journalists.

René Higuita

“I remember that they put me in jail and after eight days they come to tell me that I am there because of the anti-kidnapping law. It sounded to me like ‘hand over Pablo Escobar and you have not committed any crime’. They handcuffed me and put me in a Helicopter and I had another helicopter behind escorting me. They haven’t done this even to the worst drug trafficker. They only did it to René Higuita,” said the Colombian

Peter Storey

He was in 1979 for running a brothel, distributing pornography and counterfeiting gold coins later.

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-Marca

Kunle Solaja is the author of landmark books on sports and journalism as well as being a multiple award-winning journalist and editor of long standing. He is easily Nigeria’s foremost soccer diarist and Africa's most capped FIFA World Cup journalist, having attended all FIFA World Cup finals from Italia ’90 to Qatar 2022. He was honoured at the Qatar 2022 World Cup by FIFA and AIPS.

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