After fulfilling what he calls a dream by playing the post-Olympic season in Brazil’s professional league with SESI in Sao Paulo, Brazilian setter Bruno Rezende, affectionately known as “Bruninho,” will return to Italian side Modena next season. The announcement was made via an Instagram post to Modena’s account on Tuesday morning, confirming the long-anticipated return of the team’s former star.
The 6’3″ native of Rio was named the Best Setter of last summer’s Olympic Games – an award he’s won at no fewer than 12 major tournaments in his career. From 2014-2016, he was a mainstay at setter for Modena, helping them to win the 2016 Italian Championship.
Rezende has won almost every title there is to win in volleyball – including an Olympic gold medal, World Championship, World Cup, World Grand Champions Cup, World League, South American Championship, and Pan American Games gold.
Back with Modena, he will resume setting to fellow superstar Earvin Ngapeth, who has signed a contract extension with the club until 2020. Moderna is also home to stars like Maxwell Holt from the United States and Kevin Le Roux – though the latter is rumored to be seeking a tryout in the South Korean league.
Rezende signed a 1-year contract with the option to extend it for another 2 seasons.
“First, I would like to thank the club, which allowed me to return home for a year after the Olympic Games,” Rezende said. “Now I am ready to return to Modena, where I would like to once again win championships.”
Without Rezende, Modena had a less successful season in 2017. They finished just 4th in the regular season, and after beating Calzedonia Verona in the opening round of the SuperLega playoffs fell to Lubce Civitanova 3-1 in the semi-finals.
Rezende will take over the spot occupied last season by Santiago Orduna. Orduna played in all 26 of the team’s matches, 101 sets, scoring just 41 points – ranking him 13th among the league’s setters. A season earlier, Bruninho ranked 2nd in that same category with 82 points in just 22 games (the league’s top-flight expanded from 12 to 14 teams after the 2015-2016 season).
Rezende has already been called up to be a part of Brazil’s World League squad, one of the first 5 players to receive such a selection.
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