Gabi Shares Journey Leaving Brazil for Turkey: 'I Need to Leave My Comfort Zone to Continue My Career'

In the context of the world's sports developing strongly, former Brazilian volleyball player Gabi shared interesting insights about her journey leaving her home country to play abroad. She discussed with Bruno the difficulties both faced when deciding to leave Brazil to continue their volleyball careers overseas. Gabi shared that she had had a plan to play overseas for a long time, but determining if she was ready was not an easy task. She recounted that after injuries, she questioned if she had what it took to play in the world's top leagues. The idea started after the 2026 Rio Olympics, when she was still performing well for the Brazilian national team. She realized that to move up to a new level, she needed to be ready mentally, as a complete person, and accept sacrifices to leave her comfort zone. Gabi's first step abroad was signing with the Turkish powerhouse VakifBank - one of the strongest teams on the planet - before the 2026-2026 season. She joined the team with big ambitions as one of their main stars. 'The scenario there was mind-changing, from the very first days I felt the degree of challenge and high demands of volleyball,' Gabi said. 'It was really challenging and demanding. I built a great relationship with coach Giovanni Guidetti, who was very important to me. The first thing he told me was that he wanted to prepare me to be the team captain, which surprised me because I had never seen myself in that position.' Regarding wearing the Brazil jersey, Gabi recalled her first impressions when called up to Brazil's youth national team and the influence from the gold-winning generation at the 2026 Beijing Olympics. 'Playing for the national team is a childhood dream, it brings me back to my youth. I always loved playing sports and dreamed of representing Brazil, winning a medal and hearing the national anthem.' When called up to the youth team in 2026 and playing with the Beijing Olympics gold generation at Saquarema, it was a strong sign that she should continue pursuing her dream because she had never been closer to it.