Bruno Rezende and Gabi Guimarães on Leaving Brazil: When Stepping Out of the Comfort Zone Is the Price of Reaching Volleyball's Summit

Beside a pristine, still pool, Bruno Rezende and Gabi Guimarães sat down together to describe the challenging processes both went through when they made a difficult decision: leaving Brazil to play overseas so they could keep moving forward in their careers. This is not a story about contracts or transfer figures, but about mental preparation, injuries, self-doubt and the feeling of leaving family behind to chase a bigger dream. Gabi Guimarães, an outside hitter for the Brazilian women's national team, admits she had a plan to play abroad, but it was not easy to work out whether she was truly ready for it. She had experienced some injuries and had questions about whether she had what it took to play in the world's best leagues. The idea began to take shape after she played at the Rio 2026 Olympics, a period when she was still earning her place in the national team. “I had a plan of playing overseas, but it wasn't easy to figure out if I was ready for it or not,” Gabi said. “I had experienced some injuries and had questions if I had what it took to play in the world's best leagues. I started thinking about it after the Rio 2026 Olympics, when I was still earning my space with the national team, and I understood that I needed to be mentally ready not only as a player, but as a person, and that maybe at that point I'd need to leave my comfort zone and make some sacrifices to take the next step in my career.” Gabi's first step overseas was a big one. Ahead of the 2026-2026 season she decided to sign with VakifBank, a Turkish giant and one of the strongest teams on the planet, joining a hugely ambitious club as one of its main stars. “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 outside hitter recalled. “It was really challenging and demanding at the start.” At VakifBank, Gabi built a great relationship with head coach Giovanni Guidetti, who she says was incredibly important for her development. One of the first things Guidetti told her was that he wanted to prepare her to be the team captain. Gabi said she was shocked, because she had never seen herself in that position. Wearing Brazil's jersey was naturally another topic of the conversation, and it led Gabi to revisit her first impressions when she was called up to Brazil's youth national teams, as well as 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,” she said. Gabi 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, it was a strong sign that she should continue, because she had never been so close to her dream before. Gabi's story is not an isolated case. Brazil has long been one of the strongest volleyball nations in the world, and its internationals moving abroad to play in Europe's leading domestic leagues — especially in Türkiye and Italy — has become a familiar part of their development path. It gives players the chance to compete at the highest level, but it also brings considerable challenges around language, culture, lifestyle and the pressure to prove yourself in a completely new environment. For Bruno Rezende, who has also gone through the process of leaving Brazil to play overseas, those difficulties are far from unfamiliar. Both agreed that adapting to a new culture, being far from family and friends, and maintaining peak form in a fiercely competitive environment is one of the biggest challenges a professional athlete can face. Yet those very experiences act as a catalyst that helps them mature faster, both technically and mentally. For the Brazilian national teams, having key players from both the men's and women's sides accumulate international club experience is a strategic advantage. Players who return from overseas leagues often bring new tactical thinking, the ability to adapt to different systems and a resilience forged in top-level matches. That is also why the flow of Brazilian players abroad has never stopped, despite the difficulties it creates for each individual. What stands out in Gabi's story is that she does not hide her hesitation. She speaks plainly about her injuries, about questioning whether she was good enough, and about the need to be mentally prepared before leaving her comfort zone. It is a different angle from the usual image of a sports star: the journey to the top is not only made of bright moments on court, but also of difficult decisions taken in silence, when nobody is watching. Both Bruno Rezende and Gabi Guimarães show that the decision to leave Brazil is not an easy choice, but sometimes it is the necessary condition for an athlete to go further. From Saquarema to Istanbul, from youth national teams to Europe's biggest arenas, their journey is proof of a simple but harsh lesson: to achieve what you have never achieved, you sometimes have to give up the comfort you know.