The words a physio says slowly. 26 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.
Santiago Ramos Mingo 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 Román Gómez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Alejo Veliz had Bahia level again within 1 minutes, and Grêmio never got to play with a lead at all.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Vitão is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
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. 33 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 Román Gómez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout25 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 1‑3 defeat, delivered by Felipe Barbosa to a room that had heard them before.
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 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 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.
Matheus Alves 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.
11 combined actions and 6.96. 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Felipe Barbosa after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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.
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 dugoutLéo Bonatini knocks on the manager’s door
The words a physio says slowly. 48 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.
16 goals in 23 games at Pouso Alegre — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Bahia updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Román Gómez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
5 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.
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.
55 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.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Gabriel Xavier scored, was marked 7.73, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
“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.
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.
64 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.
6 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Chapecoense were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Bahia, and 3 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Felipe Barbosa on a 2‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
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.
In brief
Player ratingsThe afternoon ran through Erick Pulga
The words a physio says slowly. 71 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.
“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.
At 22 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 Román Gómez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
The words a physio says slowly. 80 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.
Santiago Ramos Mingo 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.
At 19 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 had been thinking. Vitão 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. 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.
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.
87 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.
“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 19 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.
15 goals in 19 games at Pouso Alegre — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Bahia updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Squad6 Sep 2027
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.
“I watch every Bahia game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Deportivo Armenio runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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 Everton Ribeiro is on it.
96 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.
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.
Matheus Alves 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.
105 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.
1‑4 to Internacional, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Gabriel Xavier 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 Damion Lowe was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
112 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.77 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. 8.05 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
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.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Bahia will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Palmeiras held the lead for 2 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Bahia answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
119 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.
15 goals in 16 games at Pouso Alegre — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Bahia updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Damion Lowe 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.
127 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sharjah have kept their man, and Bahia go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
137 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.
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.
Player ratings26 Jul 2027
A brace, and Willian José takes the afternoon — 8.87
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Willian José provided it, and the 8.87 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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 fee is $4.8M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Palmeiras drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Náutico have kept their man, and Bahia go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 7 arrived, 18 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
145 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.
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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Cruzeiro pay $16.5M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Player ratings19 Jul 2027
A brace, and Willian José takes the afternoon — 8.68
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Willian José provided it, and the 8.68 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
He is going to Cruzeiro, the club has $16.5M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
“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 first defeat in 10 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Bragantino; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
153 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Cruzeiro waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Bahia is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” CSA had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
$4.8M on the table at Palmeiras. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Ronaldo is a Bahia player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. João Lucas has agreed terms with Amazonas for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
161 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.
2 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.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Matheus Alves obliged against Inter de Limeira. 2‑2 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Bahia.
Add another name to the list: Cruzeiro have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Jean Lucas. The answer from Bahia has not changed — yet.
12 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
“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.
2 behind and going nowhere, until Santiago Ramos Mingo decided otherwise. Santos had done the hard part and then watched it come apart, and the noise at the final whistle was the sort a ground keeps.
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Juventude kept coming because nothing stopped them, and Bahia will be asked about the last half hour all week.
The offer from Wadi Degla for João Cruz 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.
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 7.90 for the rest of it.
The chase for Fábio Soares ended with $1.5M changing hands and Ferroviária out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
The phone has started ringing about Gabriel Xavier again, and this time the name on the line is Boavista. Bahia are listening politely and promising nothing.
The chase for Pedro Morisco ended with $6.2M changing hands and Coritiba out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
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.
10 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Matheus Alves 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. VfB Stuttgart have kept their man, and Bahia go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The clubs have shaken hands with Coritiba; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Casa Pia had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Player ratings14 Jun 2027
A brace, and Jean Lucas takes the afternoon — 8.09
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Jean Lucas provided it, and the 8.09 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The phone has started ringing about Luciano Juba again, and this time the name on the line is Amazonas. Bahia are listening politely and promising nothing.
Bahia asked and Atlético Mineiro said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Matheus Alves 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.
9 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of 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.
The offer from Leiria for Erick 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.
Bahia have gone to Paysandu 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.
Bahia asked and Atlético Goianiense 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 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.
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.
8 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere 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.
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.
Jean Lucas 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.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 8 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Matheus Alves was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A defender's mistake gets tidied up by somebody else; a goalkeeper's ends up in the net. He knew before the ball crossed the line, and so did everybody in the ground.
“I watch every Bahia game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Barcelona de Ilhéus runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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. Jean Lucas scored, was marked 7.90, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ademir was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 37 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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 7.68 for the rest of it.
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. Ademir 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Bahia has been clear about where Ademir stands, which is more than many ever get.
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 will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
19 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.
The 85th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Erick Pulga decided nobody was going anywhere. Internacional had no time left to answer.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matheus Alves 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Erick Pulga. 1‑0 against Internacional, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“I watch every Bahia game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Aparecidense runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
26 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.
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.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Jean Lucas scored, was marked 7.99, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Jean Lucas 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 particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Matheus Alves has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Player ratings3 May 2027
Matheus Alves was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.48. 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.
34 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.
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 Ademir was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“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.
Successful dribbles: 14. 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.
“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 words a physio says slowly. 41 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.
“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.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Caio Alexandre scored, was marked 7.94, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Matheus Alves was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Marcelo Araujo has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
50 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.
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.
Jean Lucas 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.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Matheus Alves 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.
“I watch every Bahia game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Aparecidense runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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.
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting João Paulo's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
59 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. 85 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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ademir was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
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.
4 goals in 17 games at Sport Recife — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Bahia updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
In brief
Loan watchThe goals keep arriving from Alejo Veliz’s exile
The words a physio says slowly. 68 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.
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.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Bahia, and 0 appearances in 13 say he has earned the hearing.
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.
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 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.
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 am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Bahia, and 0 appearances in 14 say he has earned the hearing.
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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Caio Alexandre signs something — a contract at Bahia or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Bahia. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
In brief
SquadLéo Bonatini has seen what the next man earns
The words a physio says slowly. 85 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.
0‑2 against Talleres. Continental football is unforgiving about the things a domestic league lets a side get away with, and this was a night spent finding out which of those the club still has.
Jean Lucas 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.
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. João Paulo knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Bahia, and 0 appearances in 13 say he has earned the hearing.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Felipe Barbosa after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Erick.
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 Jean Lucas is on it.
In brief
The dugoutJoão Paulo is still paying for one afternoon at Bahia
94 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ademir 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.
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
Loan watchThe goals keep arriving from Cauly’s exile
Loan watchThe goals keep arriving from Vitinho’s exile
Léo Bonatini damages knee ligaments — 101 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 101 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.
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 Ademir was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Bahia. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Léo Bonatini damages knee ligaments — 109 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 109 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.
2‑0 against Talleres, under lights, against people who do not speak the same language as the crowd. These are the evenings a club measures its decade in, and there are never as many of them as anybody expects.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.98 at 37, and nobody on the pitch was better.
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 player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Willian José will call it something else in private.
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.
Léo Bonatini damages knee ligaments — 116 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 116 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.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
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. Ademir 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.
Léo Bonatini damages knee ligaments — 123 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 123 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.
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 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.
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 Santiago Ramos Mingo is on 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.
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.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Bahia has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
132 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.
“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.
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. Ademir 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.
“I watch every Bahia game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Capital runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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 Everton Ribeiro is on it.
“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.
143 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ademir was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I watch every Bahia game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Barcelona de Ilhéus runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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.
151 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 most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Bahia will quote 18 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jean Lucas 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.
Erick 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 no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Vinícius Freitas has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Caio Amaral is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Carlos Carvalho has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
“I watch every Bahia game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Aparecidense runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“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 deal that would have taken Ademir to Grêmio has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Bahia with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
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.
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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Jean Lucas 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.
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 Santiago Ramos Mingo is on it.
“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.
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.
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 Léo Bonatini has written the date down.
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.
“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.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
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.
14 appearances and 0 goals away from here, and a player the manager did not have in August. Loans are sent out hoping for exactly this and most of them do not deliver it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ademir was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Iago Borduchi has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
Squad4 Jan 2027
5 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.
The offer from Botafogo for Santiago Ramos Mingo 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.
$4.2M was the most the club would pay and Coritiba 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 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 thought about how hard another man trains, and Jean Lucas was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Add another name to the list: Sportivo Luqueno have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Ronaldo. The answer from Bahia has not changed — yet.
14 appearances and 0 goals away from here, and a player the manager did not have in August. Loans are sent out hoping for exactly this and most of them do not deliver it.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Guarani waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Bahia is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. João Cruz has just signed for Bahia, and for once the answer mattered.
João Cruz is 20, and Bahia have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jean Lucas 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.
Matheus Alves 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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Bahia are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
2‑0 against Nacional, under lights, against people who do not speak the same language as the crowd. These are the evenings a club measures its decade in, and there are never as many of them as anybody expects.
The clubs have shaken hands with Athletico Paranaense; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Bahia have paid $13.3M for Matheus Alves, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
$8.2M was the most the club would pay and Atlético Mineiro 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.
9 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Nacional were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
The offer from Central Córdoba SdE for Ronaldo 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 number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $247.5K — a club that wants Fabián Balbuena enough to be asked twice.
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.
Add another name to the list: Guarani have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about David Duarte. The answer from Bahia has not changed — yet.
The offer went to CSKA Moscow 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 offer went to Atlético Mineiro 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 number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $8.9M — a club that wants Igor Gomes enough to be asked twice.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Jean Lucas 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.
0‑3 to Bragantino, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
One scored and one made, which is a different afternoon from scoring twice and an easier one to overlook. Marked 7.61, and involved in 2 of his side's goals.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jean Lucas 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.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 94. Platense had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Bahia can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
6 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.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Jean Lucas scored, was marked 7.87, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Jean Lucas 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.
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 Caio Alexandre is on it.
Successful dribbles: 14. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
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.” Felipe Barbosa chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
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.
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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Jean Lucas 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.
He has had enough of the noise. Whether Bahia can be a quieter place for him, or whether the only cure is a move somewhere the phone-ins are gentler, is a question for the next few months.
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 Everton Ribeiro is on it.
“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.
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.
Cruzeiro next, and one man in the Bahia dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
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 Erick has written the date down.
2‑3 against Cortulua. Continental football is unforgiving about the things a domestic league lets a side get away with, and this was a night spent finding out which of those the club still has.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 17 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
At 37 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.92 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
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. Everton Ribeiro 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.
0‑3 to Palmeiras, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
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 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.
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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Bahia has been clear about where Ademir stands, which is more than many ever get.
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
Squad2 Nov 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Zé Guilherme
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Zé Guilherme has come out of that comparison in the side, and Bahia have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
In brief
The dugoutJean Lucas has become a man the manager trusts
The dugoutLéo Bonatini knocks on the manager's door
3‑0. Nights like this are why clubs spend decades trying to qualify for this competition, and they arrive perhaps twice in that time. Everybody who was in the ground will describe it badly for years.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
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. 8.35 at 37, 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jean Lucas 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. 43 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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.
São Paulo will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Marlon Douglas 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.
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.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Bahia know it.
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.
Something was said to Cristian Olivera and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Danilo trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
1‑1 against Nacional, under lights, against people who do not speak the same language as the crowd. These are the evenings a club measures its decade in, and there are never as many of them as anybody expects.
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.
Ceará will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Bahia were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
A brace, and Jean Lucas takes the afternoon — 8.11
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Jean Lucas provided it, and the 8.11 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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.
Two of the goals had his name somewhere on them, which is the afternoon a manager wants from anybody asked to both create and finish. 7.97, and 2 involvements.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jean Lucas 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.
9 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
2 kept out from twelve yards, and a stadium that will describe each of them for twenty years. A goalkeeper needs one night like this in a career, and this was it.
A 2‑2 win over Atlético Mineiro, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Two goals and a mark of 8.53 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“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.
At 37 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.87 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Jean Lucas 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 Everton Ribeiro was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Caio Alexandre. 3‑1 against Mirassol, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
In brief
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Michel Araújo at his very best
Player ratingsCaio Alexandre was on a different afternoon to everybody else
2‑1 against Platense, under lights, against people who do not speak the same language as the crowd. These are the evenings a club measures its decade in, and there are never as many of them as anybody expects.
15 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.
0‑4 to Botafogo, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
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 7.46 for the rest of 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.
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.
8 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Erick Pulga will call it something else in private.
In brief
BoardroomNobody left the Bahia dressing room in a hurry
23 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.
“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 a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Caio Alexandre provided it, and the 8.17 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Michel Araújo commits to Bahia for another 4 years.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Jean Lucas 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.
Cuiabá will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Yamil Asad 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.
30 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.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Sumgayit had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Everton Ribeiro was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Rodrigo Nestor is on it.
In brief
The dugoutMichel Araújo knocks on the manager’s door
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.
“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.
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.
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.
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 7.98 for the rest of it.
Jean Lucas 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 first defeat in 8 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Flamengo; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Bahia and Floresta, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
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 unbeaten run reaches 7. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Jean Lucas 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.
Marked 7.63 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Bahia had the best player on the pitch.
The dugout24 Aug 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.” Felipe Barbosa kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Miqueias obliged against Penedense. 2‑1 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Bahia.
Match12 Aug 2026
Miqueias wins it after the whistle should have gone
104 minutes played. Miqueias found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Penedense went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
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.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Miqueias scored, was marked 7.81, 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.
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 warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Santiago Puzzo has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.84 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
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 7.65 for the rest of it.
Jean Lucas 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 academy exists for exactly this morning. Luiz Bezerra 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Henrique Martins is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Sérgio Lima is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
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.
“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 rules permit it and it stings anyway. Saymon has agreed terms with Goiatuba for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jean Lucas 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.
Santiago Ramos Mingo 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Everton Ribeiro. 1‑0 against Fortaleza, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
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
The dugoutEverton Ribeiro is still being punished for one mistake