After signing with Brazilian star Flavio Gualberto, Italy’s Itas Trentino Trento declared their roster for the 2024-2025 season complete. The 31-year-old middle blocker and Paris 2024 Olympian was the last addition to head coach Fabio Soli’s squad, set to take over the starting line-up spot of last season’s team captain Marko Podrascanin of Serbia.

“Trentino Volley is a dream club. I couldn’t say ‘no’ to their offer,” Flavio told trentinovolley.it. “After the last three years in the Italian championship, I had decided to return to play in Brazil, also because I will soon become a father. My wife Bruna should give birth in September and initially we thought that it would be easier to experience this moment in our country. However, when Trento called me I gladly revised my plan. I didn’t think twice: I will play in a club with a great tradition and that has always been able to be competitive on multiple fronts.”

Flavio arrives at the club from Trento from a hugely successful season with Sir Susa Vim Perugia, the team that took the Italian SuperLega Credem Banca national title away from Trentino and registered a golden quadruple by also collecting the 2023 FIVB Volleyball Men’s Club World Championship crown and the Coppa Italia and Supercoppa Italiana trophies. It was Flavio’s second season with Sir. The year before, they celebrated their first club world title, with the 2.00m-tall Brazilian earning a spot on the Dream Team. Before arriving in Italy in 2020 for his first SuperLega season with Tonno Callipo Calabria Vibo Valentia, Flavio competed for several clubs back at home in Brazil and spent a season with Poland’s Aluron CMC Warta Zawiercie, picking up a number of medals at continental or national level.

Flavio has accumulated 154 caps and earned plenty of trophies and medals as a member of the Brazilian national team, most notably the 2021 Volleyball Nations League gold, the 2019 FIVB Volleyball Men’s World Cup crown and the 2022 FIVB Volleyball Men’s World Championship bronze. He was named on the Dream Team of the 2019 South American Championship, where he also claimed the continental title, one of his numerous accolades from continental competitions. Flavio has now been selected among Brazil’s 12 for the upcoming Paris 2024 Games, where he is set to make his Olympic debut.

“It will be my first Olympics, although I have already experienced the atmosphere at the previous Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2021,” said Flavio. “I wasn’t in the official Brazilian squad, but I went to Japan to help the team during training. It was a great experience, and the one we will soon have in France will be even more so, thanks also to the return of spectators to the arena. In Tokyo, the game was played without fans in the stands and it was a very particular feeling even for me, since I wasn’t on the court.”

“Flavio Gualberto is one of the world’s strongest players in his role in the world,” said Trentino’s head coach Fabio Soli. “I certainly didn't discover it today, the facts confirm it. We welcome him to Trento with open arms, convinced that he will be able to guarantee us quality not only in the matches, but also during the entire training week and this will allow him to quickly become part of a group that is very dedicated to work. In terms of technical characteristics, he is a complete middle blocker, whose best fundamentals are in attack and blocking.”

Flavio was the sixth new addition to Soli’s roster this off-season and now Trentino’s 14-man squad for 2023-2024 has been finalized. In addition to Flavio, Slovenian international Jan Kozamernik, Romanian international Bela Bartha and Italian talent Marco Pellacani will work in the middle blocker department. Luxembourg’s Kamil Rychlicki and USA’s Gabriel Garcia Fernandez will man the opposite position, while all other positions will be occupied by Italian players – setters Riccardo Sbertoli and Alessandro Acquarone, outside hitters Daniele Lavia, Alessandro Michieletto, Giulio Magalini and Alessandro Bristot, and liberos Gabriele Laurenzano and Nicola Pesaresi. Another five of these players will also be seen at the Olympics – Kozamernik, Sbertolli, Lavia, Michieletto and Laurenzano.

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