Dani Alves became the oldest player to appear for Brazil in the FIFA World Cup

They call him ‘Good Crazy’. He’s a self-styled prankster, a ceaseless smiler, a charisma fountain everyone wants to be around. Yet Dani Alves suddenly got serious at the start of this year. Very serious. The right-back had what he proclaimed to be a ‘Crazy Dream’ – something he explained in an engrossing, free-to-watch FIFA+ docuseries.

He was going to sweat blood and tears to play for Brazil, as a 39-year-old, at the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™. Deep into Friday evening at the Lusail, it became reality. Alves played the full game in a 1-0 loss to Cameroon and consequently became the oldest Brazilian to appear in the competition. “It was a game of sensations – good ones at the start and during the game, but not at the end because of the result,” the Juazeiro native told FIFA+ and Ronaldo TV. “If we’d been a little more accurate, we could have won by a big margin. “At the end you have this painful feeling. Losing is never welcome. But it was a lesson. You have to learn your lessons really quickly because the World Cup doesn’t give you time to suffer. You have to pick yourself back up and on Monday we’re up against it again.”

Returning to the big stage was made even sweeter for Alves by the fact he was ruled out of Russia 2018 through injury. “I always have flashbacks,” he said. “It’s impossible not to because, in 2018, I was on the verge of going to the World Cup and I ended up getting injured. A week, 10 days before the call-up. “After that day, I made it a life goal to do a little every day – whatever that might be – to be at this competition. I knew all the risk involved during this turbulent journey, but the turbulence comes and goes and you keep going. Since 2018 I’ve been in a fight to be able to live this moment, to be able to feel what it’s like to be at a World Cup again.”

People always criticise who they don’t know,” he said. “Because if these people stopped for a bit – spent a week with us, did what we do, fought like we fight, chased targets like we do – they would have a little understanding of what it’s like to be a high-level footballer. “Because playing football is easy. You do it on a weekend, open a beer, [have a] barbecue, get your friends together. It’s a million miles from this. For example, when you decide to set goals – I’ve set goals since I was 15 years old – since I left home, I haven’t even spent a birthday with my mother, my father, my kids.” Something Alves insists won’t be easy is Korea Republic in the last 16, despite the fact A Seleção thrashed the Taeguk Warriors 5-1 in Seoul in June.