Beyond Dani Alves: List of footballers who ended up in prison includes Chileans

Dani Alves’ defense is looking for a way to get the footballer out of jail after a judge determined the Brazil full-back should be detained while an investigation into an alleged sexual assault is investigated. In this sense, the high risk of flight was decisive for the former Barcelona player in the face of the judicial procedure in the cell.

The development of this case is reminiscent of other situations in which football players have had to spend time in prison for different situations, including homicide, drug trafficking, falsification of documents, among other situations.

One such case was experienced by Benjamin Mendy who was defending Manchester City when he was charged with eight sex crimes. The footballer managed to get out on bail after being jailed for 134 days.

Following his trial in mid-January, the former France international was unanimously acquitted of six counts of rape and sexual assault after a five-month trial at Chester Crown Court. Mendy, 28, will still face a second trial as the jury failed to rule on the charge of raping one woman and attempting to rape another.

The Brazilian, a former Bayern Munich player, was sentenced to three years and nine months in prison in 2012 for intentionally setting fire to the house he was renting in Munich. The accident at his home happened in September 2011 and he was found guilty by Judge Rozi Datzmann of the Munich Court of Justice.

Another top footballer who spent time in prison was Ronaldinho. The Brazilian star spent 171 days behind bars in Paraguay where he was arrested along with his brother for using fake passports.

This decision was taken as a preventive measure to avoid the risk of leakage. They were eventually released in August 2020 after posting a combined bond of $200,000.

The Argentine star also added controversial situations that landed him in jail. In 1991 he was arrested and tried in prison for using cocaine, of course after a while he was released.

Then, three years later, he was imprisoned for shooting at journalists outside his home.

The former Spanish footballer, who played for Athletic Bilbao, Hércules and Badajoz, was arrested in February 2019 after being involved in a drug trafficking ring. In the so-called Operation Cyclone, 950 kilos of cocaine were seized and in 2015 a 9-year prison sentence was confirmed by the National Court.

The Colombian guard was sentenced to seven months in prison in June 1991 after being linked to drug trafficker Pablo Escobar and the kidnapping and then release of the daughter of Luis Carlos Molina Yepes, the former financial liaison officer of Pablo Escobar.

The Brazilian goalkeeper was sentenced to 22 years in prison after committing, together with a group of people, the kidnapping, torture and murder of his ex-girlfriend in Belo Horizonte.

In a closer case is the case of former Catholic University soccer player Luis Núñez, who in August 2022 was sentenced to 10 years and a day in prison for simple homicide.

Núñez had been found guilty days before for the death of Juan Pinto in San Joaquín in 2018.

At the time, the prosecution presented 14 documentary evidence, including reports from the Barros Luco hospital on the day the deceased was treated and the report from the Bolivian police at the time of the capture of Núñez, who had fled, stopped in February 2020. after more than a year of research.

The Chilean nationalized Argentinian footballer was sentenced in 2018 to nine years in prison, of which he served five years and eight months before being released on probation after being found guilty of co-perpetrating the simple homicide of Joan Villegas .

Now the footballer is reinstated in the defense activity of Coquimbo Unido.