The most decorated player in football history is not a striker or a playmaker. It is a right-back. Dani Alves won over 40 career trophies, more than any other professional footballer.
He collected them in bulk at Barcelona: 6 La Liga titles and 3 Champions League trophies, playing on the right side next to Lionel Messi. The two of them combined so often that opposing left-backs must have dreaded the fixture list.
A winger who happened to defend
Alves was an attacking full-back in the fullest sense. He could defend, but he could also cross, dribble and score, and for long spells he looked like a winger who had been asked to fill in at the back and decided to stay there. It worked.
His trophies did not come from one place. He won league titles in Spain, Italy and France. For Brazil he earned over 120 caps and won the Copa América more than once.
By the numbers he is the most successful footballer who ever lived, and he made the case that a right-back can matter as much to a team as any forward. At Barcelona, with Messi in front of him, that was plainly true. He comes in at number 25.
Next up tomorrow: number 24.
