Memphis Depay's agent has denied that the Atletico Madrid forward paid Dani Alves' €1m (£850,000) bail to enable the Barcelona icon to walk out of prison on Monday.
Alves, 40, had been held at Brians 2 Prison near Barcelona since January 2023 after being accused of raping a young woman in a nightclub bathroom in the Spanish city in the early hours of December 31, 2022.
He was found guilty of rape last month and was handed a four-and-a-half year prison sentence, which he subsequently appealed. Alves pleaded to be released on bail, and his bail bond was set at €1m.
It appeared that he would struggle to raise this figure due to the Brazilian reportedly having two empty bank accounts and another in the red, but he managed to pay the fee on Monday and was released from prison.
A claim was made by a social media account on Monday afternoon that Depay had paid the bail bond to help out his former team-mate, but his agent, Sebastien Ledure, has insisted there is no truth behind this allegation.
Dani Alves walked out of prison on Monday after paying his €1m bail bond, with the former Barcelona star now awaiting the verdict of his appeal for his rape conviction
It has been claimed that his former team-mate Memphis Depay (left) paid the bail fee
Depay's agent, Sebastien Lendure (pictured) has denied that his client bailed the bail bond
'This is fake news. It is false news, it is not true at all,' Ledure told Informativos Telecinco, as quoted by Goal, on Tuesday.
Ledure also asked to 'correct at an official level' the claim, after it spread on social media on Monday.
Depay and Alves briefly played together for Barcelona between November 2021 and July 2022, after the latter returned to the club following his hugely successful first spell at the Nou Camp.
Alves won six LaLiga titles and the Champions League on three occasions during his eight-year stay between 2008 and 2016, but was unable to add any silverware when he went back to play alongside Depay.
Depay is not the only former team-mate of Alves' to be linked with helping the Brazil star.
It was reported last month that his ex-international team-mate Neymar's family had helped pay Alves' £128,000 fine in his rape case to mitigate the sentence handed down following his conviction.
The former full back's release from jail while he awaits the verdict of his appeal sparked a furious reaction from the lawyer of Alves' rape victim, who slammed the decision as 'justice for the rich'.
Alves' ex-wife, Dinorah Santana, also spoke out, as she posted on Instagram: 'There are times when you will have to share the table with Judas, without that taking away your peace. Well, me today.'
Santana, the mother of his two children, had initially said she was standing by him and insisted he would never commit the crime he was arrested for.
The sports agent later claimed she felt she had been 'used' and told Spanish television: 'For me, he doesn't exist. For me, he has died.'
