The arrival of Grupo City at the helm of football in the Bahia has generated immediate changes from building the squad, with investments never seen before, to paying off the club’s historic debts.
In the midst of the search for results on the field, and to make Bahia a debt-free club, with potential for financial growth, Grupo City also plans to improve the tricolor infrastructure and reach new heights in terms of training athletes.
With numerous hires of new professionals, the idea of completely reformulating the basic work done in Bahia has already started, with the search for long-term results.
According to ge.globo, Grupo City’s plan is for Bahia to have the best base in Brazil by 2033. In other words, over a period of up to ten years, a period that also coincides with the club’s centenary.
For this, the first hired, still in December 2022, was Marcelo Teixeira, former base manager of Athletico Paranaense and with a long work at Fluminense.
Not surprisingly, the Squadron brought another six professionals directly from Fluminense’s base, in Xerém.
It is also a fact that the choice was designed by Grupo City. Fluminense’s training work is closely monitored by the Arab conglomerate, which has even done business with athletes who left the Rio club’s base – striker Kayky is an example.
There were also hirings of professionals who came from the Palmeiras base, which has currently had the best results in national competitions, in addition to the sale of athletes.
Increase in the number of professionals to capture talent
To train athletes, Bahia now has 18 professionals in the talent acquisition sector. Before, the number was small, with just four “scouts”.
The trend is for the number of scouts to increase considerably over the years, which is one of the City Group’s biggest goals in Brazilian football.
Change in competition methodology
With the integration of Grupo City’s methods, Bahia also plans to compete with younger teams in several competitions on the national calendar.
An example is the under-17 team is currently competing in the under-20 Baianão, while the under-20 team is completely focused on competing in the under-20 Brasileirão.
Focused on the national competition, Bahia’s under-20 team won four of the first five games and is currently in third place.
The same should happen in the Baiano under-17 edition, which will have a younger team in the first phase. Consequently, the same idea will be applied to the Baiano under-15, which takes place at the same time.
The transition teams, which are the under-14s and under-16s, should gain more prominence and be used more frequently from now on, with the aim of accelerating the development of athletes.
Do you want to receive news from Bahia on your WhatsApp? Click here and join our exclusive news group of the Squadron!
