From the family club to Team Carvalho
Edson and Ricardo Carvalho belong to the generation after Mestre Ciro. The Team Carvalho website gives a more specific account of the team’s beginnings: in 1991, Ricardo opened his own academy in response to growing student demand and named it after his brother Edson. Their roots were in Salvador, but the story was already reaching beyond Bahia.
Edson’s journey to Rio
According to the team’s history, Edson left for Rio de Janeiro in 1989 to compete. His success there helped build the reputation behind the academy’s name. Bruno Carvalho’s personal biography identifies Edson as a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt under Carlson Gracie. These accounts connect the family’s judo background in Bahia with its later Brazilian jiu-jitsu tradition.
Taking the team abroad
In his 2016 interview, Ricardo describes travelling to Europe in 2003 and the international expansion that followed. The family’s teaching story did not remain in one city: later generations, including Bruno Carvalho, took that background into new academies and into professional MMA. Our Gothenburg chapter belongs to that wider journey.