"I'm a good player tactically"

Sunglasses on the table, earrings, a bracelet and a ring. Worn out jeans and a jersey with the sleeves rolled up, revealing a multitude of tattoos. Dani Alves, Barcelona and Brazil defender, believes soccer owes him one; he missed Barça's triumphant Champions League final in 2009. "If God wishes it, I will be available for the míster at Wembley."

Question. Are you the best full-back in the world?

Answer. As people talk so much, they end up convincing themselves. But I just try to do my job as best I can. I'm not somebody who looks for that sort of thing, as long as my team, my coach and my club are happy with me. And, apparently, they are. If not, they'll tell me.

Q. They say you don't warn anyone when you move up the field. How do your teammates manage?

A. That's why soccer is a team sport: when someone attacks, someone else drops back, and vice versa. If it were something individual, which I had to do alone, I'd think better of it. But, as we are 11, there's always someone to give me a hand. Although it doesn't look like it, I'm a good player tactically. I play for the team. If I'm told to stay in our half it's difficult, but I'll stay. I'm very disciplined. We can't do what teams do when they come to Camp Nou and stay back and defend. There's almost no point in playing if you do that.

Q. Are you one of those defenders who wanted to be a forward?

A. I'm a forward converted into a defender. When I was a kid, I was a forward. My parents took me to play in village teams as an attacker. My dad didn't want me to defend because he had the idea that forwards made a better living. I thought I was good enough to be a forward, but when you go to a trial 20 of the 30 kids are forwards, and you can't make a team just with attackers. The big kids went to the back, the little kids up front. As I was somewhere in between, they put me in at full-back.

Q. Which player has given you problems?

A. It's curious, we talk about that among ourselves. Every team has a winger that is tricky or fast. I always get stuck with the ugliest date. [Franck] Ribéry, for example, is one of the ones who has given me most difficulty, even though we won.

Q. [Antonio] Valencia was the star of Manchester United's semifinal. Have you got orders to mark him?

A. I haven't had any orders, but I borrow a slogan from a Brazilian film. "Mission given is mission accomplished." Whatever mission the coach gives me will be accomplished.

Q. Is it your role on the field to be theatrical?

A. People have given me this label and I don't mind. If I put myself to acting, I'd do it well. It's a profession I love, but right now I'm a footballer. I try to defend my team and I'll do it to death, regardless of what anyone else says.