Barcelona player still in shock after unexpected return

At 38 years old, Dani Alves is perhaps the most shocked at his surprise comeback as an FC Barcelona player. The club legend is also excited to be back, but fans will have to wait until January to finally see him in competitive action.

Late last week, it was confirmed that Alves has come to an agreement to return to the club to reunite with former teammate Xavi Hernandez, who is now their manager. Things happened very quickly and Alves flew to Barcelona from Brazil over the weekend.

He completed his medical on Monday and will undergo his first Barcelona training session over five years since he bid the Camp Nou goodbye. It is quite a surreal situation at Barcelona, with Xavi at the helm and Alves back on the pitch.

Alves will officially be presented on Wednesday in an event open to the public. Just a week after Xavi faced the Culers, another club legend is back to be greeted by fans new and old. When he was greeted by the press upon his arrival, Alves jokingly told reporters: "You've missed me, eh!"

Following his successful medical, he said "I'm still in shock. I have spent a long time trying to come back and to be able to work alongside people who know about my history is a privilege."

He added that he is back at the Camp Nou with a mission to help. "I'm going to try to recover the Barça we all know and love. We are in the process of doing so, but we have to speed things up. This team has no margin for error. Now it's a great opportunity to do it," he said.

Despite already being Barcelona's most decorated player, Alves still calls it a "dream come true" to be back in a Blaugrana shirt. "I want to help Barça to grow. This is an incredible challenge, one which really appeals to me. It's about fighting and defending the club," he said

However, he admitted that while returning to Barcelona was always n his plans, he thought that the opportunity would come once he retired as a player. He was thinking about an administrative role, but fate had other ideas. "The nice surprise was to come back as a player. I had planned to return after retiring. You have to dream and try to make those dreams happen. I want to keep winning and if I can do that at Barça, then even better," he said, as quoted by AS.

Unfortunately, despite arriving as a free agent, Alves needs to wait until the winter transfer window to officially be registered and to be able to play. In the meantime, Xavi plans to rely on him to provide leadership within the squad as soon as possible.

Sergiño Dest, Óscar Mingueza and Sergi Roberto will have to step up if they want to compete against the legend at right-back.