Men Volleyball Team 2007
Important events about the Men’s Volleyball team in 2007.
- August 16th. Players show public support to Bernardinho. In recent interviews, Ricardinho said that he was treated unfairly by Bernardinho, and that the ‘family Bernardinho’ (a reference to the fraternity among all players) no long existed. In a collective inteview, Giba, Gustavo, Sérgio, Dante, Anderson, André Nascimento, André Heller, Marcelinho and Rodrigão declared that they were supporting Bernardinho, and the team is ready to win the Olympics in 2008.
- August 1st. An article by Epoca Magazine issue #480 explains the reason why Ricardinho was dismissed from the team: money.
The Brazilian team won a cash prize of US$ 1 million for being the champion of the World League; following a praxis which started in 1991, the money was split among all players and all members of the staff. The staff includes coach Bernardinho, the fitness personnel, the administrative personnel and so on (Bernardinho keeps two people in staff with the sole purpose of compiling statistics about the team performance).
The problem arose because Ricardinho won another prize, of US$ 100 K, for being the best player of the League. Ricardinho said that he would split this money with the players only, excluding staff members. According to Epoca, Bernardinho disagreed with the decision and argued about it with Ricardinho; Ricardinho replied that, when Bernardinho gets paid for making marketing of private companies (the coach appears in several commercials, from drinks to shoes to deodorants), he doesn’t split that money.
Ricardinho planned not to split the money the team would win by being champion of the PAN Games. Bernardinho decided not to bring him to the PAN.
- July 27th. Brazil won the Gold Medal in the Pan American Games 2007, in Rio de Janeiro; USA was the runner-up. It had been since 1983 that the Brazilian team had not won the title in a PAN.
The campaign was not tranquil, though. Brazil had just won, for the seventh time, the World League of Volleyball; notwithstanding, coach Bernardinho decided, at the eve of the first match, to dismiss Ricardinho, elected the best player of the World League 2007 (see below) and one of the most populars with the fans; to make matters worse, Ricardinho called his own soon, Bruno, to substitute Ricardinho.
To explain Ricardinho’s dismissal, Bernardinho alleged a “crisis of relationships”, but didn’t explain it thoroughly. Ricardinho also admitted that there had been some misunderstandings, but nothing abnormal (”it’s like in a family, we always have minor disagreements”), to justify his dismissal.
After the final, the players exhibited a flag with the inscriptions “17″ (number of Ricardinho’s shirt) and “You are part of this group”.
Brazilian players: Giba, Marcelinho, Rodrigão, Gustavo, Serginho, André Nascimento, André Heller, Anderson, Bruninho, Dante, Samuel and Alan. Coach: Bernardinho.
Check out this photo gallery of the Brazil Volleyball team in the PAN 2007.
- July 15th. Brazil wins the Volleyball World League 2007. The Rinal Rounds of the 2007 World League took place in Katowice, Poland, from 11th througth 15th of July 2007.
In the Intercontinental Rounds (which qualify to the Final Rounds), Brazil won all six matches against Canada, Korea and Finland. In the Final Round, started by losinng to Bulgaria, then won Russia, won Poland in the semi-final and won Russia again in the final match.
Brazilian players: Ricardinho, Giba, Dante, Andre Nascimento, Gustavo, Rodrigão, Serginho, Andre Heller, Murilo, Marcelinho, Alan and Samuel. Coach: Bernardinho.
This was the seventh time that Brazil won the League, and the fifth in a row; since 2003, Brazil has won all the editions of the World League.
The team will now prepare for the Pan American Games 2007, in Rio de Janeiro. Despite being of lesser importance, the title in the PAN is being seen with large expectation by the players: in the past few years, Brazil has won the Olympics, the World Cup and the World League, but since 1983 (when current coach Bernardinho was a player) the team hasn’t won the PAN (in 2003, Brazil lost to Venezuela).
