Football
Sam Marsden, Barcelona correspondent 7y

Dani Alves: Barcelona directors 'have no idea how to treat their players'

Dani Alves has criticised Barcelona's board for showing him no respect during his final three seasons with the club.

The full-back left Barca on a free for Juventus last summer despite having only signed a new two-year contract the year before.

However, Alves said he made sure that deal had a clause written into it which would allow him to leave for free after the first year of the terms so he could play Josep Maria Bartomeu and his board at their own game.

"I like to feel wanted and if I'm not, I'll leave," he told ABC about his Camp Nou departure.

"Leaving Barca on a free was a classy punch. During my final three seasons I always heard that 'Alves was leaving,' but the directors never said anything to my face.

"They were very false and ungrateful. They did not respect me. I was only offered a new deal when the FIFA transfer ban came in.

"That was when I played them at their own game and signed a deal with a termination clause. Those who run Barcelona today have no idea how to treat their players."

Alves was also critical of the football world and fame in general, saying that success only brings a "false life."

"Football's really hypocritical," he added. "That's why I am disappointed. Fame is s---.

"When I was little I practised signing autographs because I dreamed of being famous, of being important. But that was the mentality of an innocent kid. I didn't really have any idea what it meant.

"Now that I am famous I've realised that famous people are seen poorly. Football brings envy, hypocrisy and false friendships."

However, he refused to refuel his feud with Real Madrid forward Cristiano Ronaldo, a player he clashed with during his spell as a Barcelona player.

Alves says those confrontations were down to the way the Spanish press portrayed his words.

"All my fights with Cristiano were because of the press," he said. "If people only knew how much I respect Cristiano Ronaldo. I will repeat it to make myself clear: I respect Cristiano Ronaldo.

"When I said he always wanted the limelight, that when you win you are going to be the star but when you lose they will go for you, I said it in a very respectful way.

"And I think the same of [Lionel] Messi or Neymar. My thoughts were not negative. What happens is that the press sold them differently, saying that I had spoken ill of him. And Ronaldo believed it."

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