When Dani Alves sat down with The Guardian's Spanish football expert Sid Lowe, the result was the most enjoyable interview with a footballer that I have read in recent memory.
I knew going in that Alves would offer a contradiction to the idea that footballers conduct interviews with a conscious desire to give away as little of their actual opinions and feelings as possible, because the Brazilian full-back has a track record for being honest and open about how he feels.
Over the course of this weekend I watched Bournemouth's Matt Ritchie on 'Goals On Sunday' and West Ham's Sam Byram talk to a football YouTube channel, and both were examples of how boring interviews with professional sportsmen who have their guard up can be. I do not blame either of those lads one bit, it's entirely understandable. Footballers are conditioned to give stock answers and cliched replies because they know that certain phrases are acceptable and will not cause any trouble, and as a young footballer you almost have to ease your way into these things in the manner that you have seen so many players do before.
As someone who has interviewed footballers myself, I thoroughly enjoy seeing or reading interviews in which a player is relaxed and being themselves. Actually giving you an insight to them as a person, rather than just giving your something their social media team can post on the official club Facebook page.
That is why I absolutely loved Dani Alves sitting down with Sid Lowe.
Barcelona's vibrant full-back not only answered the questions posed to him with blunt honesty, but he also asked questions himself, and they paint a picture of Alves as a thinker, and a supremely positive person.
The first example is this terrific response to the idea that his critics say he 'can't defend', something that drove me mad as a Manchester United fan last summer to see this used as a reason why the club shouldn't sign Dani Alves on a free:
What is ‘defend’? That no one ever dribbles or attacks? Bloody hell, football would be boring, wouldn’t it? You can prepare [only] to defend but then the guy dribbles past you anyway ... what, you think you’re the only one that’s quick? If you ‘defend’, you don’t attack; if you ‘attack’, you don’t defend? What’s football for? To win. And to win you have to score more. The winner isn’t [just] the team that defends incredibly; if you defend well but don’t score, it’s worthless.
If you do the same as all the rest, you’re the same as all the rest: I don’t want to be just another player.
But what really made me stand up and take note was his views on criticism, and how to deal with it.
Alves is someone who has always had, and still has, detractors, and rather than say something like "you just try not to pay to much attention to that" like every footballer ever, he revealed that he doesn't ignore what people say about him:
I know the majority don’t like me, but... Well, maybe not the majority but a huge number, definitely. But I’m ready. Praise? Everyone’s ready to hear nice things. But to hear bad things? See how you react. I’m always under the microscope. They forget that under the microscope, a person’s good things are magnified too...
So my balls are this big!
You don’t just ignore it. It’s not, as people think, that you don’t care? Noooo ... I try to improve; people don’t believe me but I do. I use criticism for that: what would become of me without it? If people only praised me, it would debilitate me. I laugh at some of it but I take note too. You can think criticism meaningless but there comes a point when there must be something there, and that makes you think.
What is true is that I won’t change my philosophy, because I’d become bitter. If you live your life by what others say, it stops being your life.
While that may sound a bit like some recycled Facebook therapy that is usually accompanied by a selfie, it's what Dani Alves truly believes, and he made that perfectly clear when he explained why he can be caught singing all the time.
I can’t sing, but I sing. There’s a phrase: quien canta, sus males espanta [he who sings sings his troubles away]. So, I sing. Because I like to, because I don’t like to be surrounded by shit. I like happiness and when people try to destroy that, it winds me up.
People think the life I lead, being well-paid, is the reason I’m like this. No. I was happier when I lived in the countryside with my dad than I often am now. Why? Because I didn’t know how prostituted the world is.
I don’t understand why everyone fights for power, money, fame. Has no one stopped to think that fame is shit? That the more money you have, the more problems?
Everyone wants, wants, wants ... and when they have, they feel desperate. Money’s a necessary evil, there to give you moments. It gives me things I couldn’t have, nice things, but happiness? That’s a not a question of money and fame. Quite the opposite. If you’re famous, people are there: ‘Look, look, the famous guy.
And that, ladies and gentleman, may be my single favourite quote from a famous footballer.
These were just a few slices from an excellent overall read, and if you found those interesting then you simply must read the interview in full over on The Guardian.
Or you could just enjoy Dani Alves majestically gliding down an escalator moments before the Champions League final, because that's the type of guy he is:
What a guy.
