Robertlandy Simon: from Cuba to Milan for the Games

There are foreign players. From all over the world. Because the Super League is the most competitive volleyball league on the planet and it kicks off this very weekend, with Perugia still the favourites. Next come Trento, Civitanova and Verona. Then there are the Cubans. The Cubans are in a league of their own. The Cubans always have a past. And a future – you never know where it might take them. Among them is he: Robertlandy Simon, the world’s best middle blocker. A man who, at 39, after twenty years of trying, has qualified for the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. And rest assured, he’ll be playing in them. At the presentation of his new club, Allianz Milano, he was awarded the prize for last season’s best serve, and as he held the golden ball in his hands he remarked: “It’s the first time I’ve been awarded for my serve. I thought I was the best blocker, the best attacker, but this…”. He then basked in the applause of the room. It is true: the player that Milan’s president, Lucio Fusaro, has treated himself to for the tenth anniversary of his Powervolley in the Super League (“I’m the only Serie A president who has played in Serie A”) is one of the best players in the world, and not just in his position. He arrives from Piacenza, his Italian “home,” where he has spent the last four years and where he arrived in 2012 after serving a ban for deciding to leave the Cuban national team and Cuba. He did not ‘escape’, as was common in the 2000s, with players making midnight breaks from training camps. He married an Italian woman and left. He was angry because volleyball, today just as then (as you’ll read later), isn’t considered important.

Between his first and second spells at Piacenza, he also played in Brazil, Korea and Civitanova. At Lube, from 2018 to 2022, he won three league titles and one Champions League. Alongside two other Cubans, Osmany Juantorena and Marlon Yant. It was with the latter that, a few days ago in Canada, they secured Olympic qualification. It’s an incredible story. “I’d already tried three times before. And on all three occasions with Cuba, we took a 2–0 lead only to lose 3–2. It happened in 2008 against Germany, in 2019 against Canada, and in 2024 against Serbia. It also happened in 2012, but I wasn’t there.” He was also absent from the edition in which Cuba did compete – Rio 2016, where Juantorena won silver but wearing the Italian jersey. He is the only veteran from the marvellous 2010 World Championships in Rome to have been allowed to return to the national team. He will be the only one heading to the Olympic Games wearing Cuba’s white, red and blue jersey. Juantorena had tried before, was turned down, and accepted Italy’s offer. Leal accepted Brazil’s, Leon Poland’s. “I’d almost given up; it was certainly my last chance, but today I’m in the right physical condition to make my dream come true. It’s been difficult because we’re a difficult nation. Those in charge of Cuban sport have not helped us; they do not support men’s volleyball. Just think: we landed in Canada on the very day of our opening match in the tournament. They had to reschedule our match from the morning to the afternoon to allow us to arrive on time. They had not booked our flights. And it was not the first time. These are the sort of things that get on your nerves. But we players knew we could pull it off. In the final, leading 2–0 against the hosts, we lost the third set again and the ghosts of the past returned. However, we were only two points from defeat, so we looked each other in the face, recalled our past disappointments and fought with all our might. It was fantastic.”

Simon will now focus on the league. He’s tasked with getting a young and ambitious squad to fly: “I tell the lads they have to give 100 per cent in training. My experience tells me that this always pays off. If it works, you become a tough team to beat, and if you become a tough team to beat, you might just win. Because if you don’t prepare day in, day out, when the right moment comes, you won’t be ready.” Outside of volleyball, he is about to become a father for the third time. Dylan is due in December. “The first two were born on the same day as me: the 11th. Cecilia turned 15 in October. She lives in Cuba with the rest of my family. Meanwhile, Susan lives in Paris with her mother and turned 8 on 11 September; she’s coming to visit me in a few days’ time.” He met his partner, Laura, in Havana shortly before the Covid pandemic. Since then, conditions in Cuba have grown increasingly difficult. “There’s a fuel shortage, the country’s dirty, prices are high, tourists aren’t coming and there’s chaos. Things had improved under Obama; today, under Trump, there are even more restrictions. But what else could we have expected? Trump does his own thing, but we too must change, open up – we are a people of migrants. Yet our land is fertile; we must ensure the country functions on our own produce. As well as exporting cigars and rum, we used to grow sugar cane, coffee and cocoa. We need to start afresh with rice, tomatoes and boats. Have you ever seen a Cuban eating fish? No. Yet we’re surrounded by the sea, but we need boats to fish and we don’t have any.” Cuban doctors saved an Italian politician, Alessandro Di Battista. Have you been following the story? “That’s just how we are – we help one another. If you’re born in a country where we need one another, it comes naturally.” Simon, the gentle giant of volleyball.