Nicolás Acevedo loaned to Esporte Clube Bahia through 2023

New York City FC has loaned Nicolás Acevedo to Esporte Clube Bahia through 2023 according to a statement issued by the club moments ago.

The 23-year-old defensive midfielder known as Cacha joined NYCFC in the middle of the 2020 season, when New York City signed the Uruguayan youth international from Liverpool Montevideo. Since then Acevedo has featured in 67 games for NYCFC, and became an integral part of the midfield that helped the club win the 2021 MLS Cup, the 2022 Campeones Cup, and make a deep run in the 2022 MLS Cup Playoffs.

In a piece he wrote for Hudson River Blue earlier this year titled “Nicolás Acevedo is NYCFC’s unsung hero”, Andre Leigh credited Acevedo for playing an instrumental role in NYCFC’s late-season surge this past fall while remaining “the least flashy and attention-grabbing of NYCFC’s coterie of young South American talent.”

Acevedo signed a contract extension last year that ties him to NYCFC through 2025. There was no mention in NYCFC’s release of a buy clause in the loan agreement with Bahia.

Both NYCFC and Bahia are owned by City Football Group, which recently finalized the purchase of Bahia for a reported $190 million. Bahia will return to Brazil’s Serie A after spending the 2022 season in Serie B.

The announcement officially confirms a rumor first tweeted by Buenos Aires-based journalist César Luis Merlo on December 10. Luis Merlo tweeted that the loan agreement includes an option to buy.

Good luck, Cacha.