Alves’ Diary (I)

 
Dani Alves gives us his first person views of his adaptation to Barça, his new team mates and the training camp in Saint Andrews. Every day we’ll be learning how he is getting on in a personal style.
Every season brings us closer to the preseason by looking through the eyes of one of the new signings. This season, we’ll be enjoying the opinions of Dani Alves:

"Hello everyone,

We started very early on Monday, at 8.00 in the morning we had training at La Masía. I had had a similar experience in my time at Sevilla, because for the preseason in Andalusia, and to avoid the fierce heat down there, we had training sessions at seven in the morning!

I am with a really nice bunch of people and they have helped me to adapt. We have plenty of chances to laugh and the others are very communicative and easy to talk to. That’s important for creating a good atmosphere. In fact, in the current squad, apart from Seydou Keita, who played at Sevilla, I only knew Sylvinho, although that was only to talk a few times. But as they say, footballers speak the same language, so we have all understood each other very quickly.

This is my first training camp in North Europe. At Sevilla we always stayed in Andalusia and then went to Asia or the USA. It’s nice to come to a place like this, especially because the weather is nice, and that’s important for good preparation. Also, Saint Andrews is a spectacular place and we can use some top class facilities and the optimum conditions.

They have told me that Saint Andrews is a legendary place for golf, like the Maracaná is for football. I didn’t even know. I like watching it on television. Once I tried playing with one of my team mates at Sevilla and I didn’t take long to learn that it’s not the game for me. I’m much better using my feet!

Tomorrow I’ll tell you about my earliest experiences of playing with Barça. See you tomorrow!"