Leal finding his career’s missing piece with Brazil

It’s impossible to deny that Yoandy Leal has starred in one of the most successful volleyball careers in the last decade. Playing for some of the most respected clubs in the world in Brazil and Italy, the 32-year-old outside hitter has lifted as many as 30 trophies in the last ten years. However, until recently, something was still missing.

After the Cuban-born player led his home country to win the silver medals at the 2010 FIVB Volleyball World Championship, Leal decided to leave the national team in order to be able to play professionally overseas. That meant he had to spend the following nine years without the possibility of playing internationally, and he was willing to make that sacrifice.

It was a long wait, but since 2019 Leal has been able to compete internationally again, now under the flag of Brazil, the country that has adopted him and enabled him to write some of the most important pages in his rich volleyball career.

“It’s been great to play for Brazil,” the outside hitter said in an interview with Volleyball Mag in 2019. “I really missed the international competition. I grew a lot as a player at the club level, but to be able to challenge the best national teams on a regular basis, that’s just awesome. The Olympics are my dream and I hope I can be there with Brazil.”

After Leal departed Cuba, he landed in Belo Horizonte to play for Sada Cruzeiro Volei. That worked out perfectly for both sides, generating dozens of titles during the six seasons he remained with the club and also resulted in a lot of growth for the player, both at the professional and personal levels.

Among the 25 trophies Leal lifted during his time with Sada Cruzeiro are three victories at the FIVB Volleyball Men’s Club World Championship, four at the South American Championship and five triumphs in the Brazilian Superliga.

“I certainly wouldn’t be the player I am today if it weren’t for Sada Cruzeiro and Marcelo (Mendez, the team’s head coach),” he said in an Instagram live session with WebVolei. “I learned everything from him, he was like a father to me. I remember I once told him I wanted to be the best player in the world and he said that to do that I’d need to improve in every skill. I learned to receive with him and to be a team player because of the philosophy we had there.”

In 2018, Leal decided it was time to challenge himself somewhere else and signed with Italian giants Cucine Lube Civitanova, where he went on to win his fourth Men’s Club World Championship title, the European Champions League, the Italian League and the Italian Cup.

But probably the most valuable thing he got from six years playing in Brazil was new citizenship and the possibility of returning to international competition.

That materialized in 2019, when Leal was called up for the first time for the FIVB Volleyball Nations League. He was the MVP in his first tournament in a yellow uniform, the Hubert Wagner Memorial, in Poland, but went on to have an even greater role for the reigning Olympic champions during the most important event of the year.

In August, Brazil was competing at the Olympic qualifier in Varna against hosts Bulgaria and found themselves in a difficult situation with the opponents having a match point in the third set.

The South Americans went on to claim an unlikely comeback, winning the match 3-2 and qualifying for the Tokyo Games on the back of a strong performance by Leal, who scored 22 points in the match.

“I don’t think it’s necessary to mention what he adds to the team, he’s a player who makes a difference anywhere in the world and the match in Bulgaria was a great example,” said Brazilian national team captain Bruno Rezende, who has also played with Leal at Lube. “At the beginning, he needed time to understand and to adjust to our training regimen, which is more intense than most, but he was very open and willing to help and everything fell into place really fast. He’s a great player and has adjusted very easily to our group of players, which was also very nice to see. It was important that we got to build this unity with him.”

An Instagram post following Brazil’s victory at the FIVB World Cup, only a few months later, probably summed things up best.

“I’m Brazilian in my heart,” he wrote under an image of him waving the Brazilian flag. “Brazil is the country I chose and I don’t regret it. Thanks for all the love and support, many more victories are yet to come.”

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