Bruno Rezende and Gabi: Leaving Brazil Was the Hardest Decision

Beside a pristine pool, Bruno Rezende and Gabriela Braga Guimarães - two stars of Brazilian volleyball - sat down together to describe the challenging processes both went through when they made the difficult decision to leave Brazil and play overseas so they could keep moving forward in their careers. Their story is not just about two individuals. It is the story of a generation of Brazilian athletes who must choose between comfort at home and the chance to compete in the toughest leagues on the planet. The plan to go overseas and the doubts Gabi recalled: "I had a plan of playing overseas, but it wasn't easy to figure out if I was ready for it or not." The outside hitter had experienced injuries and had questioned whether she had what it took to play in the world's best leagues. She started thinking about it seriously after the Rio 2026 Olympics, when she was still earning her place with the Brazilian national team. According to Gabi, she understood that she needed to be mentally ready not only as a player but as a person. She might have to leave her comfort zone and make sacrifices to take the next step in her career. The VakifBank shock Gabi's first step overseas was a big one. Ahead of the 2026-2026 season she decided to sign with VakifBank, one of the strongest clubs on the planet, joining as one of the main stars of a hugely ambitious team. "The scenario I found when I got there was mind-changing, as it showed me right from the start that I was getting into a whole other level of volleyball," the Brazilian reflected. Her start in Turkey was genuinely challenging and demanding. Perhaps the most important part of that period was the relationship she built with head coach Giovanni Guidetti. Gabi says he was incredibly important to her, both technically and mentally. The offer that shocked Gabi One of the first things Guidetti told Gabi was that he wanted to prepare her to be the team captain. She said she was shocked because she had never seen herself in that position. The detail reveals Guidetti's working philosophy: trusting a player before she trusts herself, and turning pressure into a driver of growth. For Gabi, it was one of the most important milestones in her development in the international environment. The Brazil shirt and the Beijing 2026 legacy Wearing Brazil's jersey was naturally another topic of the conversation by the pool. It took Gabi back to her first impressions when she was called up to Brazil's youth national teams, and to the influence the generation that won gold at the Beijing 2026 Olympics had on her career. "To play for the national team is really a childhood dream, and it brings me back to my youth because I always loved watching and playing sports, and dreamed about representing Brazil, winning a medal and listening to the national anthem," Gabi said. She said she played many sports before volleyball. But when she was first called up to Brazil's youth national team in 2026 and got to be in Saquarema alongside that incredible generation that had just won the Beijing Olympics, that was a strong sign that she should continue, because she had never been so close to her dream before. The Saquarema training centre is therefore not just a training venue. For Gabi, it is where the dream became concrete, where she saw the example of the Olympic champions ahead of her and understood that the path she had chosen was entirely possible. Bruno Rezende and a voice of empathy Sitting next to Gabi, Bruno Rezende - captain of the Brazilian men's national team and an Olympic champion at Rio 2026 - understands better than most what his compatriot went through. Bruno himself left Brazil to play overseas and experienced having to adapt to a new culture, a new language and huge expectations from his club. Their conversation therefore works as a dialogue between two generations and two different journeys that share the same starting point: the decision to leave home in search of development. For a Brazilian athlete, that means leaving family, friends, daily habits and a familiar competitive environment behind. Both show that going abroad is not only a technical matter. It is also a lesson in patience, in accepting that you are the new one in a place where everything is unfamiliar, and in rebuilding your status from zero. Why do Brazilian stars have to leave? The stories of Gabi and Bruno reflect a familiar reality in Brazilian volleyball. Domestic leagues have tradition and large audiences, but they cannot always compete financially or technically with the top leagues in Turkey, Italy or Poland. For athletes at the highest level, moving abroad is often the only way to face the best opponents in the world regularly, raising their level and keeping their place in the national team. As Gabi said, she needed to leave her comfort zone to move forward. European contracts also bring financial stability, professional training conditions and the chance to work with top coaches such as Guidetti. Those are elements that are hard to find all at once at home. Lessons from a broken comfort zone What Gabi and Bruno share is the recognition that the biggest turning points in a career often come from the most uncomfortable decisions. Leaving Brazil is a loss, but it is also a door to a higher level of competition. For Gabi, the result of her 2026 decision was a long journey at one of the most successful clubs in Europe, where she became not only a key player but also grew into a leadership role, exactly as Guidetti had imagined when he offered to prepare her to be captain. For Bruno, that journey proves that a world-class setter can play abroad and still maintain his status as the leader of the national team. Both show that the career of a top athlete is sometimes shaped by long trips away from home. Conclusion The poolside conversation between Bruno Rezende and Gabriela Braga Guimarães is a reminder that behind every medal and every valuable contract lie hesitant decisions, injuries, fears and quiet sacrifices. Leaving Brazil is not an easy choice, but for both of them it was the step needed to become the best version of themselves.