Two goals and a mark of 8.57 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Bahia have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Atlético Mineiro wanted more than $5.3M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Santiago Ramos Mingo was one of the reasons people came, and $8.7M does not replace that by itself.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Bahia have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Oeste waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Bahia is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
$3.9M on the table at Atlético Mineiro. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.13 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Lucas Moura was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Bahia will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Bahia have done the hard part with River Plate, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Lucas Moura 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.
Bahia offered $440.0K; Cruzeiro said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Erick Pulga 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Bahia will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Bahia and Santa Cruz have settled on $1.4M. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Bahia asked and Bragantino said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Bahia offered $730.0K; São Paulo said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Bahia will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
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.
Squad29 May 2028
Erick Pulga 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.
Successful dribbles: 17. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Squad29 May 2028
7 new faces, and Bahia are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” João Nardo after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Bahia will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The club looked outside for a month, found nothing it preferred, and handed the job to the man who had been doing it anyway. He knows the building; now he has to prove he knows the rest.
Two goals and a mark of 8.39 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
1 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Caio Alexandre provided it, and the 8.07 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Lucas Moura was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
6 goals in one match, Caio Alexandre on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Bahia and Grêmio.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Bahia will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Successful dribbles: 34. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Lucas Moura 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.
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.
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.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Bahia will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
37 days since the seat came open, a list of names doing the rounds, and nobody has signed anything. Every week this drags on the shortlist gets shorter.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Hernandes has just signed for Bahia, and for once the answer mattered.
Successful dribbles: 16. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 64 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Erick Pulga was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
9 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Bahia will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
7.73, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Lucas Moura was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Diogo is living that version at Bahia, and it tends to show in the first month.
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.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
At 20 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Bahia will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match15 Apr 2028
Rodrigo Nestor wins it after the whistle should have gone
91 minutes played. Rodrigo Nestor found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Fortaleza went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Dell did not need any: 8.90, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.66 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
1 for Luciano Juba, marked 7.83, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Lucas Moura 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.
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Pedrinho is a Bahia player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
In brief
SquadWords at Bahia training over how hard people work
The terracesBahia supporters have found a favourite in Dell
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Bahia will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Day 9 of the vacancy. Candidates have been priced, sounded out and quietly ruled out — and the caretaker’s win ratio is becoming an argument all by itself.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Erick Pulga 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.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Kanu has written the date down.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Bahia will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Orlando City had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
“I am not thinking past Saturday, and I would advise nobody else to.” The caretaker’s first rule is to pretend the job is small; Luís Costa recited it perfectly.
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.
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.
11 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
In brief
The dugoutA fresh start for Lucas Moura under the new man
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 105 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Bahia have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Lucas Moura was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
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.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Bahia will quote 16 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Bahia, and both men came out saying it was fine.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Bahia will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Lucas Moura 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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Antônio Carlos is living that version at Bahia, and it tends to show in the first month.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Erick Pulga 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Bahia, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Nobody sells a season ticket on a signing like this. Every manager who has been through a bad October wants one anyway, and Bahia have gone and got theirs early.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Francisco Sciarini has, at Bahia, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Bahia hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
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.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The offer from Epicentr for Dell 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.
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.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
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.
Nobody at Bahia will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Lucas Moura was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
At 23 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Erick Pulga was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad28 Feb 2028
12 new faces, and Bahia are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Santiago Ramos Mingo signs something — a contract at Bahia or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Nobody at Bahia will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Lucas Moura 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.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Lucas Moura trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 Vinícius Lira is on it.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Bahia that is a harder question to answer.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Nicolás Acevedo has written the date down.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Bahia have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Keder Junior is living that version at Bahia, and it tends to show in the first month.
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.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Nobody sells a season ticket on a signing like this. Every manager who has been through a bad October wants one anyway, and Bahia have gone and got theirs early.
The words a physio says slowly. 20 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Bahia can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Bahia can pretend not to have heard.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Dell had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. João Victor has just signed for Bahia, and for once the answer mattered.
Botafogo will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Murilo Prates has pre-agreed a move to Bahia, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Every squad is half players the manager chose and half players he inherited. Lucas Moura was chosen, the man who chose him has gone, and he starts again from nothing under the next one.
28 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Bahia lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Everything agreed with another club, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Lucas Moura was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
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.
Squad31 Jan 2028
9 new faces, and Bahia are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Bahia will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
36 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Bahia lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: another club keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Lucas Moura 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.
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.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Nicolás Acevedo trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
19 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Bahia lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 24 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The shirt still fits. Brenner is back at Bahia, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Caio Emerson is living that version at Bahia, and it tends to show in the first month.
Bahia asked and Nacional said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The words a physio says slowly. 27 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Bahia will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Bahia offered $3.3M; Vasco da Gama said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
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.
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.
Bahia asked and Penarol said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The words a physio says slowly. 35 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Bahia will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 56 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
Bahia have gone to Vasco da Gama with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Bahia can pretend not to have heard.
42 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Bahia lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Bahia will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Rodrigo Nestor had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Bragantino were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
7 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Flamengo have kept their man, and Bahia go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
The words a physio says slowly. 49 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Bahia will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The offer from Palmeiras 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Botafogo have kept their man, and Bahia go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Lucas Moura 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.
Successful dribbles: 22. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 67 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Two goals and a mark of 9.12 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.14 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Bahia have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Lucas Moura was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 74 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Bahia asked and Botafogo said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
$8.4M was the most the club would pay and Sport Recife 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.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. João Lucas has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
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.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Bahia heard it as anything else.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Bahia will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Bahia they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.76 for the rest of it.
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.
A 1‑1 draw with Palmeiras leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout29 Nov 2027
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Marcelo Araujo chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Bahia know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
In brief
The dugoutNicolás Linares has become a man the manager trusts
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 90 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Successful dribbles: 23. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Bahia, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Bahia know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
In brief
The dugoutMichel Araújo has become a man the manager trusts
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 97 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Caio Alexandre 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Erick was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 8.32 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Marcelo Araujo after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Bahia will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Santiago Ramos Mingo scored, was marked 7.99, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
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.
Successful dribbles: 22. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
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.
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.38, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings8 Nov 2027
Caio Alexandre was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.05. 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Bahia will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.59 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Bahia they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 120 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
16 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Bahia lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Lucas Moura 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Erick was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Bahia pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Bahia will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
24 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Bahia lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Lucas Moura was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
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.
“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.
Player ratings18 Oct 2027
Alejo Veliz was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.11. 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Bahia will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
32 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Bahia lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
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 Marcelo Araujo to a room that had heard them before.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Bahia will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The words a physio says slowly. 40 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Bahia they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
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.
Luciano Juba was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Somebody watched every match in the division at the weekend and decided he was the best thing in any of them. A small honour, and most careers end without one.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Something was said to Ronaldo and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 10.00 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Lucas Moura was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Bahia and Paysandu, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alejo Veliz 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.
Player ratings20 Sep 2027
Alejo Veliz was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.01. 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 15 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
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.
Marked 8.08 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 23 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Successful dribbles: 28. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.73 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Bahia is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Bahia heard it as anything else.
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.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 32 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
7.98, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Lucas Moura 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.
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.
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Santa Cruz spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
Marked 8.05 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 41 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The words a physio says slowly. 14 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Lucas Moura was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Erick 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.
Position 12, 28 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 49 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The words a physio says slowly. 21 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
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.
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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Marcelo Araujo after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Bahia will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
31 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Bahia lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Bahia is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Arthur Jampa has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
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.
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.
12 combined actions and 6.89. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
At 23 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Alejo Veliz. 1‑0 against Cruzeiro, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
In brief
Player ratingsThe afternoon belonged to Alejo Veliz
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 65 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
39 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Bahia lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The offer from America Mineiro for Willian José 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.
Lucas Moura 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Erick Pulga was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Bahia can tell you which week it ends in.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Marcelo Araujo after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Willian José
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Bahia will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Boardroom26 Jul 2027
Bahia close the window on a squad of their own making
1 in and 5 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Lucas Moura was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
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.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
In brief
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Michel Araújo
The dugoutThe plan did not have a place for Everaldo
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 83 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Bahia have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The offer went to ABC 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.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Sidney has agreed terms with Vitória for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Internacional paid $1.3M and Bahia took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
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.
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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Bahia will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Santos go through and Bahia go home, 1‑0 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Vinícius Lira will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Bahia escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
1 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
Player ratings12 Jul 2027
Roger Gabriel could not have asked for more on his first appearance — 7.71
Debuts are survived rather than enjoyed. This one was enjoyed: 7.71, 0 goals, and a manager already being asked whether he starts again next week.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Vinícius Lira did not need any: 7.62, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.56 for the rest of it.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 98 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Bahia is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“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.
Lucas Moura 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.
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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Bahia will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 9.72 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Bahia have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
Luciano Juba 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.
Bahia asked and Corinthians said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Bahia will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Santa Cruz waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Bahia is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Lucas Moura had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Atletico Goianiense were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sport Recife have kept their man, and Bahia go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.95 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
1 for Caio Alexandre, marked 7.97, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Bahia will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The offer from São Paulo for Ruan Pablo 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Mirassol have kept their man, and Bahia go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Internacional paid $3.7M and Bahia took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
“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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Bahia will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
$25.0M on the table at Cruzeiro. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Bahia can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Bahia people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The offer went to Santos 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.
Add another name to the list: São Paulo have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Ruan Pablo. The answer from Bahia has not changed — yet.
The offer went to Sport Recife 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 137 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Lucas Moura was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Bahia and Flamengo, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Erick was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Marcelo Araujo after 0‑6, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 53 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
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.
He is 19 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Bahia will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Santiago Ramos Mingo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings17 May 2027
Rodrigo Nestor was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.03. 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.
Minute 89, against Juventude, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
14 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Bahia lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Bahia will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.92 at 38, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Caio Alexandre was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
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.
21 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Bahia lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Bahia will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
There were 88 minutes on the clock and Sport Recife had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Bahia did not stop to explain themselves.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.21 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
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.
The words a physio says slowly. 30 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 86 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Two goals and a mark of 8.13 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
7.80, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Santiago Ramos Mingo 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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑0, Marcelo Araujo could afford to be generous.
37 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Bahia lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 94 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.33 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Bahia they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
45 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Bahia lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Bahia will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Lucas Moura was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
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.
55 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Bahia lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Bahia will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Lucas Moura 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.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Bahia know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The money the manager was told he had is now money the manager used to have. $7.2M, gone from the table without a statement, and a dressing room that understands what it means.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The words a physio says slowly. 63 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Bahia will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Erick 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 words a physio says slowly. 70 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Bahia will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Bahia have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
“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.
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 Michel Araújo is on it.
The words a physio says slowly. 78 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Bahia will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
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.
Luciano Juba 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Bahia, and both men came out saying it was fine.
85 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Bahia lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Bahia will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Lucas Moura 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Bahia, and both men came out saying it was fine.
93 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Bahia lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The offer from Baltika for Dell 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.
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.
Nobody at Bahia will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
100 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Bahia lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Bahia is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
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.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Bahia know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
107 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Bahia lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Lucas Moura was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
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.
Nobody at Bahia will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The words a physio says slowly. 115 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The offer from Leiria for Zé Guilherme 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.
Lucas Moura 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.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Bahia hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Erick Pulga trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
123 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Bahia lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Bahia heard it as anything else.
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.
The phone has started ringing about Zé Guilherme again, and this time the name on the line is Leiria. Bahia are listening politely and promising nothing.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Bahia, and both men came out saying it was fine.
131 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Bahia lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Bahia is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Add another name to the list: Omiya Ardija have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Dell. The answer from Bahia has not changed — yet.
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.
“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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Bahia know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Bahia have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Lucas Moura was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
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 system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
“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 last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Bahia have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Nicolás Linares has, at Bahia, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Lucas Moura 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.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Bahia know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Nobody at Bahia will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Still no offer on the table, and Kanu’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
The offer from Grêmio for Marcos Victor 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.
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.
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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Marcelo Araujo after 1‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The offer from Santos 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.
1 for Jean Lucas, marked 7.92, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
1 for Erick, marked 7.83, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Caio Alexandre 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Fluminense have kept their man, and Bahia go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
Lucas Moura is 34 and has run out of things to prove. What he has left is where to stand, when to slow it down and what to say at half-time, and none of that is on a fitness chart.
The clubs have shaken hands with Sport Recife; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Bahia people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Bahia offered $5.5M; Sport Recife said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Bahia had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Bahia have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Victor Hugo has agreed terms with Boa for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Caio Alexandre was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Bahia will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The offer from Santos for Caio Alexandre 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.
$7.8M was the most the club would pay and Cruzeiro 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 offer went to Vasco da Gama 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.
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.
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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 28 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑4 Marcelo Araujo left the room before anybody could ask which.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Bahia, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 35 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.82 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Caio Alexandre 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.
17 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Successful dribbles: 16. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
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.
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.
Marked 8.31 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Caio Alexandre was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.00. 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.
A point taken on 96 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
It needed Caio Alexandre to find the net to bring anything home at all: 3‑3 against Vasco da Gama, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Marcelo Araujo was not hiding it after 3‑3, and nobody in the Bahia dressing room was either.
At 37 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.28 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
1 for Jean Lucas, marked 7.90, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
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.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Bahia hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
At 18 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.
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.
He will be fined, he will apologise, and he will play on Saturday. The order of those three tells you everything about what a football club actually values.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Bahia heard it as anything else.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mateus Pasinato 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager’s verdict
The dugoutErick Pulga knocks on the manager's door
The dugoutEveraldo left out for tactical reasons at Bahia
Everton Ribeiro 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.
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.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Botafogo defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
Caio Alexandre was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
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.
Successful dribbles: 16. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Something was said to Guido Herrera and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Marcelo Araujo after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
“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.
Every touch weighed, every quote parsed, every mistake replayed. Some players grow into that; some are quietly finished by it; nobody knows which until afterwards.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mateus Pasinato was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Successful dribbles: 13. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Caio Alexandre has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
At 37 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.93 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Erick Pulga was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
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.
Marked 8.02 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
9 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Marcelo Araujo kept it short after the 3‑2 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Caio Alexandre 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Santiago Ramos Mingo 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.
Successful dribbles: 18. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Marcelo Araujo left the room before anybody could ask which.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Grêmio in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
In brief
The dugoutRonaldo has become a man the manager trusts
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Bahia will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Jean Lucas was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Fernandinho has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Bahia have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
He is 18 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
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.
Successful dribbles: 36. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 26 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. São Paulo defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Bahia will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.87 for the rest of it.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Caio Alexandre scored, was marked 7.78, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Santiago Ramos Mingo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Bahia will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Caio Alexandre 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.
Marked 9.64. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Bahia.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Erick Pulga was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.80. 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.
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.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 16 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Corinthians go through and Bahia go home, 0‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
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.
Marked 8.13 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Marked 8.05 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Mateo Sanabria obliged against Juventude. 4‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Bahia.
There is exactly one of these per career and it does not usually go like this. 1 on the scoresheet, 8.16 beside the name, and a crowd that had never seen him before chanting it by the end.
The hardest thing about being 18 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Dell did not need any: 8.01, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
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.
At 22 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.
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.
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Juventude tried to reorganise, Bahia did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
In brief
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Michel Araújo at his very best
Caio Alexandre 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.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Internacional will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Kauan has pre-agreed a move to Bahia, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Daniel Monteiro is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Daniel Lima has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Leonardo Moura has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Bahia heard it as anything else.
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.
Successful dribbles: 19. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Still no offer on the table, and Guido Herrera’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
In brief
Squad7 new faces, and Bahia are still learning each other