--- --- # Soccer Star Dani Alves Eats Banana That Was Thrown At Him As a Racist Taunt by [Samantha Grossman](https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/) ## Samantha Grossman Apr 28, 2014 3:20 PM UTC by [Samantha Grossman](https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/) ## Samantha Grossman Apr 28, 2014 3:20 PM UTC When a fan threw a banana at Brazilian soccer player Dani Alves, who plays for FC Barcelona, he responded by calmly picking it up, peeling it, and taking a bite. Then he seamlessly resumed play and took his corner kick. His team went on to beat Villarreal 3-2. “I don’t know who threw the banana but I want to thank him,” Alves [told](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2614496/Dani-Alves-EATS-banana-thrown-racist-fans-Barcelonas-win-Villarreal.html) the _Daily Mail._ “It gave me the energy to put two more crosses in for our goal.” Alves also commented on Twitter: > [](https://twitter.com/DaniAlvesD2/status/460545574585262080) This translates to: “My father always told me: son, eat bananas to avoid cramping lol how did they figure this out?” Barcelona Soccer Player Dani Alves Eats Banana Thrown At Him ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/79241/dani-alves-eats-banana-thrown-at-him/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/79241/dani-alves-eats-banana-thrown-at-him/"},"headline":"Soccer Star Dani Alves Eats Banana That Was Thrown At Him As a Racist Taunt","datePublished":"2014-04-28T15:20:44.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:09:10.677Z","description":"The best way to handle racist taunts","url":"https://time.com/79241/dani-alves-eats-banana-thrown-at-him/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Sports topic","Racism","Soccer","Barcelona"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Samantha Grossman","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/79241/dani-alves-eats-banana-thrown-at-him/","name":"Soccer Star Dani Alves Eats Banana That Was Thrown At Him As a Racist Taunt"}}]}] ```