Melissa Teresa Vargas Abreu

Cuban volleyball player naturalized as Turkish, who plays as an opposite hitter for the Turkish club Fenerbahçe. At the national team level, she has participated in youth and senior competitions with the Cuban national team, and as of 2023, with the Turkish women's national team.​

Melissa Vargas' career began in amateur Cuban tournaments with the Cienfuegos team, her native province.

In the 2015-16 season, she received permission to sign her first professional contract with Prostějov, in the Czech Extraliga​, with which she won the Czech Republic Cup and the league championship. During the year she suffered a shoulder injury, which forced her to undergo surgery and spend a long period off the court, leading to a diplomatic case with the Cuban federation, which ended in January 2018 with a four-year suspension from Cuban tournaments and the national team. After the disqualification, she signed a multi-year contract with Volero Zurich, ​despite never having played in the Swiss National League A.

In the 2018-19 season, she signed with Fenerbahçe, in the Turkish Sultanlar Ligi, where she played for three years, being awarded Best Opposite Hitter in the 2020-21 season.

In the 2021-22 championship, she moved to the Chinese Volleyball Superliga, where she played for Tianjin​ winning the national title; in January 2022, at the end of the Chinese championship, she returned to the Istanbul club for the second part of the Sultanlar Ligi 2021-22.

In the following championship, she joined the Tianjin​ team again, with which she won the championship again, later returning to Fenerbahçe in January 2023, to play the second part of the year, at the end of which she won another championship and was awarded MVP and Best Opposite Hitter.

National Team
She was part of Cuban youth national teams, winning the silver medal with the Under-20 team at the 2014 NORCECA championship​, where she was awarded Best Scorer and Best Serve of the tournament. ​She had previously received the award for Best Attacker at the 2013 Pan American Cup​. With the Under-23 team, she won the bronze medal at the 2014 Pan American Cup​, being awarded Best Opposite Hitter.​

In 2013, at thirteen years old, she made her debut with the Cuba national team: in 2014 she was the leading scorer in both the Pan American Cup and the XXII Central American and Caribbean Games, where she won the bronze medal. A year later, she won the silver medal at the NORCECA Champions Cup, being awarded Best Scorer and Best Attacker, while at the Pan American Cup she was awarded Best Scorer, Best Serve and Best Attacker of the tournament, and later received another award for Best Attacker at the XVII Pan American Games.

At age 15, she participated in the 2014 World Championship, where she was identified by FIVB as one of the promising players on the Cuban team. ​She later participated in three Volleyball Grand Prix events with the Cuban senior national team.

In 2019, she began the process to obtain Turkish nationality, obtaining her passport two years later​ directly from the hands of Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. In 2023, she was called up for the first time to the Turkish national team, being part of the squad that competed in the 2023 Nations League.

Honors
Clubs
Czech Championship: (2015-16)
Chinese Championship: (2021-22, 2022-23)
Turkish Championship: (2022-23)
Czech Republic Cup: (2015-16)
National Team (Youth Competitions)
Central American and Caribbean Games 2014 - Bronze Medal Bronze Medal
NORCECA Champions Cup 2015 - Silver Medal Silver Medal
Individual Awards
2014 - Pan American Cup: Best Scorer
2014 - North American Under-20 Championship: Leading Scorer
2014 - North American Under-20 Championship: Best Service
2014 - Pan American Under-23 Cup: Best Opposite Hitter
2014 - XXII Central American and Caribbean Games: Best Scorer
2015 - Pan American Under-20 Cup 2013: Best Attacker
2015 - NORCECA Champions Cup: Best Scorer
2015 - NORCECA Champions Cup: Best Attacker
2015 - Pan American Cup: Best Scorer
2015 - Pan American Cup: Best Service
2015 - Pan American Cup: Best Attacker
2015 - XVII Pan American Games: Best Attacker
2021 - Sultanlar Ligi: Best Opposite Hitter
2022 - Sultanlar Ligi: Misli.com Special Prize
2023 - Chinese Volleyball Superliga: Best Foreign Player
2023 - Sultanlar Ligi: MVP
2023 - Sultanlar Ligi: Best Opposite Hitter