Suspended and accused of being a man, the Brazilian volleyball player with tears in her eyes: The hardest decision of my life, it destroyed me

2025-10-27 20:04:32Sport SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX
Suspended and accused of being a man, the Brazilian volleyball player with tears
Nayara Ferreira

It had never happened before in Albanian sports, even foreign athletes, to be discussed, suspected, asked for, let alone suspended, for lack of a gender test.

But this time it is women's volleyball player, Brazilian Dinamo player Nayara Ferreira, who has been suspected and asked to confirm her female gender through a blood test.

Suspicions? Just hallway chatter. And that was enough for the Brazilian athlete, in addition to being isolated at home for more than a week, to suffer a psychological shock that took us a long time to get under control, for her to make this exclusive confession to Top Channel.

"I will speak Portuguese because it is easier for me to express what I feel and everything that is happening. This is a very difficult situation for me. It is the first time I have experienced something like this in my entire career. I have been playing volleyball since I was 12 years old," says Ferreira.

Nayara has played for about 15 years in several European countries and not only, such as Finland, Spain, Portugal, the Czech Republic, also in Saudi Arabia, not to mention the beginnings of her career in Brazil. Since childhood. This is a children's match 17 years ago, when Nayara was about 15 years old, playing in the local championship.

A previously unbroadcast image, but the physical appearance, at least from afar, speaks for itself. We say the external appearance, since the suspicions that led the Vllaznia and Pogradec clubs to this were such, or at least no medical or professional documents were shown to the Dinamo athlete when she asked who had requested her or on what basis she had been requested.

"What is happening to me now is discrimination. I do not accept this. They have not responded to me and have not given me any legal reason why they did this. They just did it. When I asked a federation official – I do not even know who it was – he said that "it is a private document and I cannot show it". I said: "Ah, is it private? What is private to you about my life? Why?" That is how I feel now. I have no words to describe it", adds the volleyball player.

Isolation, stress, pressure, discrimination - it will come back to all those who are doing it to me, Nayara continues in the full interview, which you will have the opportunity to follow tonight on the Top Story show, where the Brazilian athlete talks a lot about the current situation and what awaits her in the coming days.


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