This second day of the trial of former Brazilian soccer player
Dani Alves
, accused of having sexually assaulted a 23-year-old girl in December 2022, it was the turn of his wife,
Joana Sanz
.
Of the 22 witnesses summoned for this Tuesday by Room 21 of the
Barcelona Court
, where the trial is being held, 19 testified. The most anticipated voice was that of Joana Sanz, second and current wife of the former player.
Sanz, 31, is a Canarian model who met the Brazilian when she was 23,
the same age as the girl who accuses Alves
of having abused her.
And although Joana, at first, tried to publicly separate from him, as the months went by
she did not hide the fact that they were still in contact
and visited him several times in the prison.
This Tuesday, in front of the court, Joana Sanz supported the mitigating circumstance of Alves' defense lawyer, who could receive a sentence of between 9 and 12 years: that in the early hours of December 31, 2022, the
former soccer player was totally drunk
.
“
He came home very drunk, smelling of alcohol
.
He crashed into the closet and collapsed on the bed,” his wife said of him.
She clarified that it is not true that she had gotten angry when, in a WhatsApp exchange, she asked Alves if he was having dinner at home that night and he confirmed that no, that it was a “boys' night out.”
Joana Sanz's testimony is part of the former soccer player's defense.
Photo: EFE/Enric Fontcuberta.
She confirmed that the former player returned after four in the morning and that she did not approach him.
“It wasn't worth talking to him as he came, better to leave it for the next day,” she declared.
And she gave the information that the Spanish chimentera homeland was hoping to know: “I have not legally requested a divorce,” said Joana Sanz.
A curiosity: hours before giving a statement,
the model deleted her accounts
on social networks.
Despite the damage
“I was very struck by Dani Alves because of his joy, how happy he is, what he transmits, the good energy he shares with people…” Joana said as soon as she was introduced to the former Barça defender.
It was in 2015, in Barcelona.
They had friends in common.
Two years later, in a wedding that was as romantic as it was secret, they got married in Formentera, the smallest island of the Balearic Islands, on the Mediterranean.
But in March of last year, when the scandal consumed hours of television programs, Joana wrote a letter.
Dani Alves with Joana Alves, in happier times.
Photo: EFE/ Facundo Arrizabalaga.
“It's so hard for me to accept that that person could break me into a thousand pieces.
"I think it will take me years of life to get the way he looks at me, that way as if I were the most incredible thing in the world," she said, hurt.
And damn, yes, I'm amazing because I'm hard-working, independent, intelligent, detail-oriented, loving, fun, faithful and human.
So human that, despite the damage she has caused me, I am still here by her side.”
“I am still there and I will continue to be there, but in a different way,” he announced.
I love him and will always love him.
Whoever says that love is forgotten is either deceiving themselves or not truly loving.
But I love myself, respect myself and value myself much more.
Forgiving relieves, so I stay with the magical and close this stage of my life,” wrote Joana.
In September of last year, he uploaded a letter that Alves sent him from prison to his networks.
“Everything will pass and we will become stronger together,” the former player wrote in print.
Dani Alves during the trial taking place in Barcelona.
Photo: Jordi BORRAS / POOL / AFP.
“Thank you for your resistance, thank you for your resilience, thank you for not giving up on me.
“I always said that you are what I always dreamed of, but now I say that you are more than I could have dreamed of,” Alves told him.
“Whatever, wherever, whatever but always with you.
“I love you forever,” added the former footballer.
For months,
Joana was the difficult figure of the Spanish press
.
She took a while to agree to give an interview.
She did so only in November of last year, when Alves had already been in preventive detention for ten months.
Joana Sanz said that she did not divorce Dani Alves.
Photo: LLUIS GENE / AFP.
“Your husband has not been in prison for ten months for having been unfaithful to his wife.
He is accused of allegedly sexually assaulting a 21-year-old girl, to whom he said, for example: 'Tell me, I'm your little whore.'
Do you really recognize someone like that?
Because, a person who even hits a 21-year-old girl... It is not infidelity.
"It's something more serious that makes you think what kind of beast I live with," they asked him.
“Is it okay for you to ask these types of questions to me, since I have absolutely nothing to do with the case?” was Joana Sanz's furious response.
Daniel Alves da Silva
will speak in front of the court this Wednesday
, the last day of the trial.