Marked for Willian José
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market18 Jan 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Erick Pulga in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bahia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad18 Jan 2027
A row about effort at Bahia
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Caio Alexandre was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Felipe Scheibig, and the manager let it.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
David Duarte gets picked when it counts
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say David Duarte is on it.
Market18 Jan 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Caio Alexandre’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market28 Dec 2026
Bahia say no — this time
The offer from Grêmio for Jean Lucas was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Market28 Dec 2026
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Bahia, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market28 Dec 2026
Internacional pay $14.6M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Transfer targets28 Dec 2026
Too dear: Bahia walk away from Pedro
$9.7M was the most the club would pay and Flamengo were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
The terraces28 Dec 2026
Supporters turn on the $14.6M sale of Luiz Gustavo
He is going to Internacional, the club has $14.6M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Age has not caught Everaldo yet — 7.83
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.83 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Transfer targets28 Dec 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Bragantino have kept their man, and Bahia go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad28 Dec 2026
A falling-out at Bahia
Jean Lucas and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Caio Alexandre falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets7 Dec 2026
The offer went to Alverca this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Transfer targets7 Dec 2026
$9.7M was the most the club would pay and Palmeiras were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Market7 Dec 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Transfer targets7 Dec 2026
Bahia asked and Cruzeiro said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Transfer targets7 Dec 2026
Bahia make their move for Renê
$290.0K on the table at Fluminense. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words exchanged at Bahia
Erick Pulga and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at Bahia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Caio Alexandre is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Match5 Dec 2026
Internacional left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
The manager makes an example of Willian José
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad12 Oct 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bahia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match10 Oct 2026
Everaldo scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Flamengo, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words at Bahia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Willian José is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Vinícius Pacheco to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
Everaldo knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Everaldo trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Erick
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
Looking ahead12 Oct 2026
A test against the best for Bahia
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Corinthians.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Player of the week, judged against every other man in the division. A small award, and one most careers never collect.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match12 Aug 2026
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Rodrigo Nestor obliged against Juventude. 6‑1 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Bahia.
Squad17 Aug 2026
The match ball belongs to Rodrigo Nestor, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Squad17 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bahia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match12 Aug 2026
Rodrigo Nestor among the goals in a wild afternoon
7 goals in one match, Rodrigo Nestor on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Bahia and Juventude.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
At 19 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Match15 Aug 2026
It finished 1‑0, and it was Rodrigo Nestor’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Bahia.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Santiago Ramos Mingo falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Mateo Sanabria was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.35. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.15, and no argument anywhere in the ground.