Türkiye lost the first set. Brazil, ranked second in the world, took it 25-23 after leading by five, and Türkiye was a set down in a final.
It won the next three. 25-23, then 26-24 from 24-24, then 25-21, and the 2026 FIVB Volleyball Nations League belonged to Türkiye for the second time.
Melissa Vargas scored 33 points, the most of anyone on the court, and was named the tournament's most valuable player. Hande Baladın added 19. Ana Cristina answered with 25 for Brazil and it was not enough. The final was played at the East Asian Games Dome in Macau, after Türkiye put China out of the semifinal without dropping a set.
The team is known at home as Filenin Sultanları, the Sultans of the Net, and Sunday was the eighth year running it has reached the final stage of a competition that only began in 2018. It won the title first in 2023, against China, and was runner-up to the United States in the inaugural final. The collection now stands at four medals, two of them gold.
Daniele Santarelli, the Italian who took the job in 2023, has three golds with this team and four medals in all, counting the silver at last year's world championship.
How it landed at home
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan called from Türkiye. Youth and Sports Minister Osman Aşkın Bak was in the arena, having traveled a long way and arrived through bad weather, so the call came through his phone.
"Kupayı size getiriyoruz," the volleyball federation president, Mehmet Akif Üstündağ, told him. We are bringing you the cup.
Üstündağ said afterward that Erdoğan was the first person to call when the match ended, and that he congratulated the players one by one. He also said the thing that people who win tournaments for their country tend to say, and meant it: that it is impossible to listen to the anthem at a medal ceremony without getting goosebumps. Then he moved on to the next one. He hopes, he said, that the country gets to feel this again at the European Championship.
The Türk Yıldızları, the air force aerobatic display team, posted a video for the champions.