At 33 years old, centre back Guilherme Valadão Gama is featuring for the second time at the IHF Men’s Club World Championship for Handebol Taubaté, with his first rodeo coming in 2018, when the Brazilian side finished on the fifth place.

But now, he is closer to the end of his career rather than its start, a career which has shown a lot of promise, but was hampered by many injuries. First, Valadão Gama missed the 2015 Pan American Games, due to his first major injury. But the biggest disappointment came one year later, when the centre back missed the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, where Brazil were the hosts, also due to a devastating ligament tear, which sidelined him for several months.

In that instance, Valadão Gama knew that his other passion would help him through the tough moments. 

“The truth is that I've always wanted to be a doctor, but I thought that sharing my time between handball and studying would be very complicated. And then, I went to play in Spain and I got injured, I had the ligaments in my knee torn. So, I tried to, more or less, know what was going on there, learning anatomy and the passion came from there,” says Valadão Gama.

Therefore, after his second major injury, which saw the centre back miss the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, Valadão Gama enrolled into the medical school at the University of Taubaté, sharing his time between studies, practicing, as well as playing handball.

“I have one year left, I have already been studying medicine for six years, in Brazil it is seven years of studying for the degree, and now I have one year left. Now I work in the hospital, I'm in the hospital all day. I train for two-three days a week, when I can and then I can say that I have a double role, as a player and as a doctor,” says Taubaté’s centre back.

Once expected to be the next big thing in Brazilian handball, Valadão Gama found his career derailed by injuries, but now he accepted the situation and returned to his home country, after stints in Spain, where he played for Cisne, Guadalajara and Granollers, as well as a short stint in Romania, where he featured for CSA Steaua București.

He still made the Brazil team for the 2020 South and Central American Handball Championship, where he secured the silver medal, but his first appearance at the IHF Men’s World Championship was in 2019, when the South American side clinched the ninth place, their best-ever finish in the world handball flagship competition. He also featured in 2021, when he was in Pinheiros' roster.

At Taubaté, he is the second oldest player now, with six of the 16 players in the roster born after 2000 and the average age of the team being 25.5 years old. Therefore, with a lack of experience, the Brazilian side, current South and Central American club champions, found it difficult to compete at the 2024 IHF Men’s Club World Championship.

“For us it's a great opportunity to play against the best in the world, to play against an Egyptian team in Egypt, for example. To play against Veszprem, one of the best teams in the world, it is like a dream. Many of our players had never played at such a level, they had never left Brazil to play a tournament and coming here to Egypt and playing against the best is really exciting,” adds Valadão Gama.

Sure, Taubaté lost both of their matches so far at the 2024 IHF Men’s Club World Championship, 25:30 against Zamalek SC and 17:43 against Veszprem HC, but everything is part of a steep learning curve, which can bring Brazil back between the top teams in the world.

“At the end of the match against Veszprem, some of us were talking to them, that we were like their fans. They were asking me, how can I say that I'm a fan, that he's my idol? And the truth is that yes, it was surely a difficult match, but we enjoyed it a lot,” adds Valadão Gama.

“As we are amateurs in Brazil, the whole season when we have good players, good matches and we come for example to the Club World Championship, then many of us leave the team to look for good opportunities in Europe, Spain, France, Germany or other country. Like I did 10 years ago. We don't dedicate 100% of our time just to training because we have to look for opportunities.”

The other opportunity came for Valadão Gama in the shape of another career after his playing career, despite having to make big sacrifices and waking up at 5:00 in the morning or spending 12-hour shifts in the hospital. But it all comes with the territory.

“Playing handball, studying and also working and being in the hospital 12 hours in a shift there, going out and training straight away is really hard. But I still enjoy it and love it. Otherwise, I would not be here,” concludes Valadão Gama.