Dani Alves keen to play until 2022 World Cup

Former Barcelona defender Dani Alves on Saturday that he hopes to continue his international career until the 2022 FIFA World Cup when he will be 39.

Alves has not played for Brazil since October 2019, three months after he captained his country to the Copa America title on home soil.

But the 37-year-old revealed he hasn’t lost his motivation to compete at the highest level and has not given up on a boyhood dream to win football’s most prestigious international trophy.

“Men without dreams are men without life,” Alves said in a live broadcast on Instagram. “As long as I’m alive, I will continue to dream and work hard so that my dreams become reality.”

Alves has been capped 118 times for Brazil since his international debut in 2006. He represented the Selecao at the 2010 and 2014 World Cups but missed the 2018 tournament in Russia because of a knee injury.

Alves, who has reinvented himself as a midfielder since joining Sao Paulo from PSG in 2019, is recognized as the most decorated professional footballer in history with 43 trophies over a career spanning two decades.

ARR