‘Ex rule’ in São Paulo v Bahia: Cauly free to play, joins 7 | OneFootball

The match between São Paulo and Bahia in the Brazilian Championship scheduled for this Sunday (5/3), at 4 p.m. (Brasília time) will feature no fewer than eight names who have switched sides between the two tricolor teams.

One of the most recent to join the team of “former players” was attacking midfielder Cauly, who arrived at São Paulo on loan from Bahia at the start of this season. The player lost space under Rogério Ceni at his former club and was transferred to Tricolor.

However, unlike most loan deals in Brazil, Cauly does not have a fee that must be paid in order to play against the team he still belongs to, in this case, Bahia. Thus, the midfielder will be available to coach Roger Machado to play for Tricolor this weekend.

The signing arrived at São Paulo on a deal valid until the end of the year, with a mandatory purchase clause worth 2 million euros (R$ 11.68 million at the day’s exchange rate) if certain targets are met. Cauly needs to play at least 45 minutes in 25 matches to trigger the clause.

So far, the player has played nine matches with at least 45 minutes on the field, meaning he still needs 16 more games to reach the stipulated target.

The “former club” rule even on the bench

Both coaches, Roger Machado and Rogério Ceni, know this Sunday’s opponents well. The current São Paulo manager coached Bahia between 2019 and 2020, winning the state championship twice with the club.

Ceni, meanwhile, needs no introduction. As a coach, he managed São Paulo in 2017, and then again between 2021 and 2023, overseeing 142 matches, though he won no titles with the club where he became a legend as a player.

The four familiar faces at Bahia

On the pitch, there are four players who have already been at the São Paulo club. Experienced 35-year-old goalkeeper Léo Vieira, Bahia’s starter, came through at São Paulo and was even Rogério Ceni’s backup. However, he made only two appearances for Tricolor.

Two midfielders who are now Bahia substitutes also recently left São Paulo: Rodrigo Nestor, a Cotia academy product and scorer of the historic title-winning goal in the 2023 Copa do Brasil, and Uruguayan Michel Araujo, who played for the club for two seasons. Both left Tricolor for the Northeast in 2025.

The biggest standout and top candidate for the “former club” storyline is in attack. Bahia’s top scorer this season with eight goals, Willian José is one of the key figures in Rogério Ceni’s team, where he was also a Tricolor teammate on the pitch between 2011 and 2012.

On São Paulo’s side, besides Cauly, another new name has also played for the other side: winger Artur, who has been putting in good performances for Tricolor since arriving at Roger’s request. In 2019, when he won the Bahia state championship with the club, he broke onto the national scene after 55 matches, with ten goals and 11 assists.

São Paulo will host Bahia, but at the Cícero de Souza Marques stadium in Bragança Paulista, as Morumbi has been made available for concerts, in a match scheduled for 4 p.m. this Sunday in the 14th round of the Brasileirão.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇧🇷 here.