"You must do the thing you think you cannot do."

Eleanor Roosevelt

We all have childhood dreams we would like to become real, some are possible, some are not but when you are close to realize one of them, oh boy, you HAVE to try!

My chance at becoming a Serie A Italian volleyball player came after years of volleyball around the world, sacrifices of all kind, and a lot of perseverance. 

I was back in Argentina, working for ExxonMobile Business Support Center downtown Buenos Aires. I had a great stipend, ai played volleyball in a nice time and couldn’t really complain much. However, it was something inside of me that wasn’t happy in that situation; I wanted more, I needed to try and reach my childhood dream.

When my manager Stefano called me and said I should go try-out for an A team in Italy, I didn’t hesitate at all: took my 10 days of holiday for my brand new job and crossed the ocean to find out how good I really was.

It ended up being I was good enough to be part of the Serie A team and so I quitter my very well paid job in Argentina and moved to Aprilia, in the Lazio region of Italy to finish the season with the team. 

Athletically, it was a fantastic experience that allowed me to find out what kid of player I was, realized my physical (most than anything) and tactical limits, and was able to accept the roof of my skills. 

What I was not able to accept was the fact that a “professional” player won’t get paid as the contract stipulates. I was there for 5 months and there were able to pay only half of what they promised. I was in a good situation, but many of the players in the team who were there since the begging of the season were not paid for quite a long time.

Talking to many players in the team and other teams, I realized that at this level, getting paid  was not guaranteed in many of the teams who participated in the A1 and A2 Italian leagues, as ridiculous as it may seem, it was easier to get paid going a level down into the B1 level. 

It was the time to put all the cards in the table and see how to play the next hand.