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EC Bahia

When Clube Bahiano de Tênis and Associação Atlética da Bahia decided to close their football teams, some “orphan” players from the team decided to join together to create Esporte Clube Bahia. The first meeting was at a cabaret in Salvador. The team was founded on January 1, 1931.

Esporte Clube Bahia is also known as Tricolor de Aço or Esquadrão de Aço, so no one better than the Man of Steel to be the club's mascot. The Superman drawing that represents the club was created by cartoonist Ziraldo, in 1979. To help in the fight against racism, the classic mascot gained, in 2014, a companion: Lindona da Bahêa, a version of the artist Nei Costa for the Wonder Woman.

Bahia won two titles in the Brazilian Championship: in 1959 and in 1988. The one in 1959, played under the name of Taça Brasil, is considered the first edition of the Brasileirão. The final was played in three games against Santos. Bahia won the first game 3-2, lost the second 2-0 and won the third 3-1. In 1988, the final was played over two games. Bahia beat Internacional 2-1, at Fonte Nova, in Salvador, in the first leg, and drew 0-0, at Beira Rio, in Porto Alegre, in the return leg.

The greatest scorer in the history of Bahia is Carlos Domingues Viana, Carlito. He scored 233 goals with the shirt of Esquadrão de Aço and defended the team throughout his career, from 1946 to 1959. Only against the biggest rival of the team, Vitória, were 21 balls in the net.

In 1934, Bahia won a historic title for the Northeast in the National Championship of State Teams. Of the 11 players in the starting lineup, seven played for Tricolor Baiano. In the same year, Bahia faced a tragedy. On July 2, for the first time since its foundation in 1931, Esquadrão de Aço lost a classic to Vitória. The player Bitonho, from Bahia, left the field arrested because he attacked the referee. The following day, Bitonho committed suicide.

In the 1939 season, Bahia scored two historic defeats on rival Vitória: 9 x 4 and 10 x 2. But the most curious fact happened in a Bahia x Galícia game that ended 4 x 0 for the Esquadrão. Manager Nelson Chaves went to striker Pedro Amorim's house to pick him up for the match, as Pedro declared himself sick and unable to play. Amorim took to the field in earnest and scored three goals.

The day that could have been a party ended in tragedy for Bahia: on November 25, 2007, Fonte Nova was packed to see the game against Vila Nova, in which Bahia would gain access from Série C to Série B of the Brasileirão . Part of the concrete structure of the stadium's upper ring gave way, killing seven people and injuring dozens.

Bahia has an extensive list of supporters who are marked in the history of Bahian music: Caetano Veloso, Maria Bethânia, Gal Costa, Gilberto Gil, Bell Marques, Armandinho, Netinho and Saulo are some examples. Among the anonymous, Bahia is marked by some symbolic fans like Lourinho: he made voodoo dolls so that opposing players would not play well.

The club received the colors of the flag of the state of Bahia: blue, red and white. Initially, however, the idea was that the colors were black, blue and white. Who vetoed it was the first president, Waldemar Costa: he thought that black in a football shirt would be bad luck. The team's shield is the flag of Bahia inside a blue circle. The curious thing: instead of the triangle, the upper left part of the flag has another Bahia flag, in a smaller size.

The term “Steel Squadron” appeared in 1946, created by journalist Aristotle Góes, who participated in the founding of Bahia. Bahia is considered the first Brazilian champion in history. Tricolor won the 1959 Taça Brasil overcoming the mighty Santos de Pelé in the decision. With that, Bahia also became the representative of Brazil in the first edition of the Libertadores Cup, in 1960. The team was eliminated in the first phase by San Lorenzo after losing by 3 x 0 in Argentina and winning by 3 x 2 in Salvador.