Gabi and Bruno open up on leaving Brazil: 'I didn't know if I was ready'

By a pristine pool, away from the whistle and the crowd noise, Bruno Rezende and Gabi Guimarães sat down to talk about the challenges they both faced when they made the difficult decision of leaving Brazil to play overseas. Their conversation did not start with trophies, but with doubts, injuries and the courage it takes to leave one's comfort zone. Gabi, one of the best outside hitters of her generation, admitted that she kept wondering before choosing to go abroad. “I had a plan of playing overseas, but it wasn't easy to figure out if I was ready for it or not. I had experienced some injuries and had questions if I had what it took to play in the world's best leagues,” she said. The question was not only about skill, but also about the mind of an athlete looking for her place in the Brazilian national team. She recalled the period after the Rio 2026 Olympics, when she was still earning her spot with the national team. Gabi understood that if she wanted to go further, she needed to leave her comfort zone and make sacrifices. “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,” she said. Her first move abroad was a giant step. She signed with VakifBank in Turkey before the 2026-2026 season, joining one of the strongest teams on the planet as one of their 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,” she reflected. The hardest part of her early days, however, was not just the training. It was the trust that coach Giovanni Guidetti placed in her. “I built a great relationship with Guidetti, and he was incredibly important for me. One of the first things he told me was that he wanted to prepare me to be the team captain, and I was shocked because I have never seen myself in that position,” Gabi said. That pressure became a turning point in her career. The conversation also touched on the Brazilian national team, a childhood dream for Gabi. “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. Before volleyball, she played many sports. But in 2026, she was first called up to Brazil's youth national team at Saquarema, alongside the generation that won the Beijing Olympics. “That was a strong sign that I should continue because I had never been so close to my dream before,” she recalled. Gabi's story is more than a transfer to a foreign club. It is a reminder that great athletes are not robots, but human beings who face insecurities and choose to overcome them every day. Her experience shows that leaving home does not erase one's roots; it transforms them into a source of strength. For Brazil, players like Gabi are proof that the national team is built on the courage of those who leave to grow and return to give back. After all, the highest level demands not only talent, but the will to step into the unknown and keep going.