Bernardinho returns to the men’s volleyball team as technical coordinator

Bernardinho is back in the Brazilian team, six years after leaving. A Brazilian Volleyball Confederation (CBF) announced this Saturday that the multi-champion professional will be the new technical coordinator of the men’s team and will work together with the coach Renan Dal Zotto “to plan the work of adult and grassroots teams towards the 2024, 2028 and 2032 Olympic Games.” Along with his position at CBV, he will continue working as a coach at Sesc Flamengo.

“I am very happy to return to work with the men’s teams. The objective is to put into practice integrated planning between the youth and adult teams, thinking about the next Olympic cycles. I want to use my experience to contribute, especially in the development of younger players . We have the idea of ​​taking them to compete in international tournaments, which will expand their experience and help in the transition process between generations. It’s a very comprehensive job and I will count a lot on Renan and all the other coaches of the youth teams”, he says the new technical coordinator of the selection.

Brazilian men’s volleyball has not been going through a good moment, which is why Dal Zotto’s command has been questioned. Last month, the team lost the South American Championship for the first time in history, after being defeated by Argentina. Until then, he had won all 33 editions in which he participated. In the only year that Brazil was left out, in 1964, the Argentines were the champions.

“Bernardinho’s arrival as coordinator of the men’s teams reinforces the work of integration between the youth and adult categories”, says Dal Zotto, who is preparing the team for the Pre-Olympic, to be played between September 30th and October 8th. “We have already worked together, we have similar ideas. I participated in the development of this new structure proposed by CBV, which will certainly generate many good results”, he adds.

The new organizational chart with the inclusion of the position of technical coordinator was also instituted by CBV in the women’s team, but, in this case, the role must be held by José Roberto Guimarães, the team’s coach for 20 years. CBV, however, is still awaiting a response from Zé regarding the invitation.

“The integration between adult and youth teams is a fundamental factor in the success of Brazilian volleyball for decades. With the creation of the position of technical coordinator, CBV makes this work even stronger. For the positions, we invited the two most successful coaches of the history of national volleyball. Bernardinho has already started working with the men’s team, and we await José Roberto Guimarães’ response. The experience and capacity of Renan Dal Zotto and the coaches of the youth teams will be extremely important in this work”, explains Jorge Bichara , technical director at CBV.

Historic Bernardinho winner

Silver medalist as a player at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games, Bernardinho was coach of the women’s team between the 1990s and 2000s, a period in which he achieved two Olympic bronzes (Atlanta-1996 and Sydney-200) and runners-up in the 1994 World Cup. and in the 1995 World Cup. In the men’s team, he went even further, with gold medals in Athens-2004 and Rio-2016, in addition to silver medals won in Beijing-2008 and London-2012. He also has three titles and a runner-up in the World Cup. In World Cups, he has two golds and one bronze.

He left the command of Brazil in 2017 and the following year he was considered to run for governor of Rio de Janeiro for the Novo Party, but gave up his political journey. Since leaving the national team, he has coached the Sesc women’s team, which, as of 2020, started to have a partnership with Flamengo. Between 2021 and 2022, he coached the French men’s team in parallel with the Rio team.