In an interview with L'Equipe, Dante gave his thoughts on the Prime Minister's announcement on Tuesday. The OGC Nice captain, who was concerned about a premature restart of the Ligue 1 season, made clear his relief that the league campaign had been stopped*.

Currently in lockdown in Brazil, the defender hailed a "very reasonable" decision. "As footballers, we're privileged," he said. "But we're going through a global crisis and we're all the same. It's a relief, because the moments of doubt are over. We were asking ourselves questions about restarting training on 11 May, how we were going to keep four metres apart in order to respect the medical instructions, whether we were going to play or not…Now, everything is clear, we can stay in lockdown and prepare the restart properly."

'WE WOULD HAVE LOOKED LIKE FOOLS'

"A lot of people are dead or grieving. We don't know how to solve a big global problem, but we wanted to find a solution to play football…Instead of focussing on how to improve everyone's situation, we were thinking about a game," said the 36-year-old, the doyen of the Nice dressing room. "It's our job, but it's not a priority. People are going to hospital, others depend on little jobs that they've lost, but the footballers would have played? While those who really need to work can't? It was indecent. We would have looked like fools."

'GIVE TESTS TO KEY PEOPLE'

"Should you have masks and tests more than a delivery driver or a doctor which society really needs? No," said the Brazilian, who underscored the fact it has nothing to do with his desire to play the game. "I always want to play football, I miss not smelling the grass, it bothers me…People are putting themselves in danger by working much more than us, they have to be the priority. All the tests that we would have used, give them to key people. It wasn't a good image either. If I play and score, I'm going to show I'm happy, and what are the people who are having a tough time going to say when they see me enjoying myself?"

Dante, who has played 149 competitive games for OGC Nice, explained that he was "saying the same things before the Prime Minister spoke, and I would have said the same thing if he'd announced we were starting again on 11 May. We can qualify for Europe, but I would never exchange that against people's health. The clubs' interests are really small in comparison to what is happening."

You can find the full interview with Dante in the 29 April edition of L'Equipe (in French)

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