FC Barcelona icon Dani Alves has been handed a four-and-a-half-year prison sentence for sexual assault by a court in Spain.

Alongside the sentence, Dani Alves is required to pay $163,000 (€150,000) in compensation to the victim and faces a nine-and-a-half-year restraining order. Following his release, Alves must fulfill five years of probation.

The charges stem from an accusation of raping a woman in the VIP section bathroom of Sutton nightclub on December 31, 2022.

Alves, a former Brazil international and three-time Champions League winner with Barcelona, was arrested three weeks after the incident and has been in detention since then, facing allegations of “sexual assault with penetration”.

Prosecutors sought a nine-year prison term for Alves, followed by a decade of probation, and urged him to pay $163,000 (€150,000) in compensation to the victim—a ruling that the court has upheld.

Initially denying knowing the victim in a TV interview, Alves later admitted to having consensual sex with her.