Mayssa Pessoa


Mayssa Raquel de Oliveira Pessoa, also known as Mayssa Pessoa is a Brazilian female handball goalkeeper for French club Saint-Amand Handball and formerly the Brazilian national team. In 2013 she won the World Championship; the first time ever for Brazil and South America.
She was one of nearly two dozen LGBT Olympians at the London Games.

Career

Pessoa joied French side Issy-Paris Hand. A year later she joined Russian team Dinamo Volgograd to replace the injured Anna Sedoykina. Here she won the 2013 and 2014 Russian Super League.
In 2014 she joined Romanian CSM București. Together with three other Brazilian players she won the Romanian National League in 2015, which was the first in club history.
In her second season at the club she won the league for a second time in 2016, and this time she also won the Romanian cup and the 2016 Champions League, beating Hungarian Gyor in the final.
Afterwards she joined North Macedonian HC Vardar. Here she played a single season, where she won both the Macedonian league and cup.
In 2017 she returned to Russia and joined Rostov-Don. Here she won the Russian championship in 2018, 2019 and 2020.
In 2021 she joined Romanian Dunărea Brăila.
In 2023 she joined Danish side HH Elite to replace the pregnant Emily Stang Sando. In the 2023-24 season the team narrowly escaped relegation and finished in 12th out of 14.
The following summer she joined Norwegian Sola HK.

Achievements

World Championship:

Awards and recognition

Personal life

Pessoa comes from a family of intellectuals. Nicknamed Taffarel, she resides in the same city with Hulk. Her father is a university professor and a former athlete who competed in handball, volleyball, basketball, futsal and beach handball. Her mother is a lawyer, and one of her two sisters is a pediatrician.