North Carolina signs Bia Gomes
On Friday, the North Carolina Courage announced the signing of Brazilian winger Bia to a contract through the end of the 2027 season. Some fans might have said “Bia? Didn’t she just leave the Current?” But no, not Bia Zaneratto. Ana Beatriz Gomes Lopes (Bia Gomes on her jersey) is a different Brazilian winger. She’s 23 years old, and spent the past season and a half playing in Russia for Zenit Saint Petersburg.
Usually in articles like this one, I try to look at public available data and any public video to try and give people an idea of how a player plays and how they might fit into the Courage. Reader, if you are asking if I have access to advanced data coverage of the Russian Women’s Football Championship… no, I do not.
But let’s see what we can learn.
Before we start #
Thanks to The Lion’s Pitch who had me on to discuss the Angel City and Kansas City games!
We talked about their grit to continue fighting against KC, and went into how they would need to adjust to injuries and U-20 World Cup absences. At the time we recorded, we had heard that Lauryn Thompson was replaced on the U-20 World Cup roster for England, and would stay with the Courage.
News broke on Friday that Erica Meg Parkinson will be staying in North Carolina as well. Attendees at the Courage’s meet-the-team event on Thursday for season ticket members knew that something was up as Parkinson was very visibly in North Carolina and not in Poland; the news release confirmed it.
Internacional / International play #
In 2022 Bia made her senior debut at age 19 for the Brazilian club Internacional. Among her teammates were other young Brazilian players who would later come to the NWSL: Angel City midfielder Maiara Niehues and Washington Spirit winger/defender Tamara Bolt. She appeared in 10 of Internacional’s 15 national league games (Brazilian football has both a national league and a state league structure), in which she scored two goals. Overall across all competitions she had 28 senior appearances with five goals.
She also made her sole appearances in the Brazilian national setup in that year’s CONEMBOL U-20 championship. Alongside multiple current or former NWSL players (Bruninha, Tarciane, Luany) Bia made one start and one substitute appearance, scoring a goal in a 10-0 drubbing of Bolivia. Brazil’s tournament win qualified them for the 2022 U-20 World Cup, but Bia was not named to the World Cup squad. If you look at a simple comparison of those rosters, it looks like her slot may have gone to former Courage player Aline Gomes (no relation).
Trying her luck in China #
After her contract expired with Internacional, Bia moved to Changchun Dazhong in the Chinese Women’s Super League. It’s not unusual for Brazilian players to play in China; current Orlando Pride defender Rafaelle played for Changchun for five years earlier in her career, and noted when she signed there that the pay was much better than what was available in Brazil.
Generally a mid-table side, Changchun had a remarkably succesful 2024, losing only once in league play. That year Bia was joined in Changchun by current AFC Toronto and Nigeria striker Esther Okoronkwo.
Publilc stats on the Chinese league are spotty. The Courage noted her as having 10 goals and five assists in 47 appearances in China, which is probably more accurate than the online stats I can find (3 goals in 2023, 6 goals in 2024).
On to Russia #
When her contract expired in China in January 2025, she joined Russian side Zenit Saint Petersburg on a free transfer. Zenit is one of the top three clubs in the Russian Women’s Football Championship, alongside CSKA Moscow and Dynamo Moscow. With her on the 2025 Zenit team was Costa Rican international and all-name-team member Priscila Chinchilla, who later played with current Courage player Vilde Bøe Risa at Atletico Madrid.
It took a while for Bia to get playing time at Zenit, whether due to coach’s favor or injury. She didn’t make her first appearance until July 11th (Russia plays spring-to-fall like the NWSL). Over the rest of the season she had six starts and 10 total league appearances, playing a little under 600 minutes and scoring 3 goals. She also had four cup appearances, with 2 starts.
Her 2026 was less fruitful. She started three of the first four games of the season, but then saw her playing time cut to only substitute appearances as the team began to favor Russian youth national Arina Shuba. Overall she totalled a little over 400 minutes in the league, and was held off the scoresheet. (She did score a goal in a substitute cup appearance).
Her last game for Zenit was on August 15th, a fourteen minute sub appearance in a cup match.
How Bia plays #
Bia is a right-footed winger and/or midfielder. For Zenit (per Flashscore) she played primarily as the right-sided midfielder in a 4-4-2.
There isn’t much video of her time with Zenit that I can find, but there is some. The full match of her second appearance with Zenit is on Youtube. (On the opposite side for Dynamo Moscow is current Boston Legacy backup striker Fauzia Najjemba).
In Zenit’s setup that game, here’s what we can learn. Bia is #7, and Zenit are in the white jerseys.
She isn’t used as part of Zenit’s buildout; when they bring the ball up she pushes forward to join the front line. There are a couple of nice instances of her progressing the ball forward later in the build.
Here she makes herself available for a pass. Once she recieves, she gets her defender on her back, and accelerates towards the box. She lays it off for a teammate, leading to a blocked shot.
This time she recovers a bouncing ball, and hits a first-time pass into space for a teammate. After a scramble in the box, she picks up the ball and attempts a volley into the top corner of the net, skipping it off the crossbar.
Here as Zenit attempts to build quickly, she does drop into the defensive half to combine as the ball is then played long; eventually Zenit wins a throw.
Out of possession, she willingly drops back to help defend and close down opponents. In this game she wasn’t an Erica Meg sort of presser, but that also could be Zenit’s tactics.
She was not used as a set-piece target, understandable as she’s 5'3". On corners she would play at the top of the box looking for loose balls. As for adjusting to NWSL physicality, there was a distinct whiff of murderball in this Russian league game - Bia got fouled multiple times in the first twenty minutes, and there were multiple shoulder barges to the back in the game overall. She should be fine.
Beyond that game, there isn’t much video. But Zenit did post a compilation of all their 2025 league goals, so if you’d like to see her three goals from that season, we’ve got that.
On her first goal she darts behind the center back on a well timed run, collects the through ball, and calmly finishes away from the keeper.
For her second, she gets on the end of a redirected corner and hits a seeing-eye shot through traffic. Having this somehow beat the keeper is luck; hitting the first-time volley so it stays down is skill.
On her third goal, she starts the play on the left as a teammate hits a low shot that the keeper dives and parries away. She picks up the rebound and slams it home.
Coming to the Courage #
The circumstances of her signing are interesting. North Carolina noted that Bia was signed as a free agent, not a transfer. However, the Russian season is still going on; it unlikely Bia’s contract was actually expired. Without more information, the simplest conclusion is that Bia asked for her release from Zenit, in a search for a different environment or more playing time.
All For XI posted the introductory interview that the Courage did to youtube.
In it, Bia talks about this transfer all coming together in the past two weeks, which gives even more context compared to earlier, long-pursued transfers, such as Evelyn Ijeh (who they looked at in the summer of 2025) or Erica Meg Parkinson (who signed a pre-contract in January).
On May 6, the Courage placed Payton Crawford on the season-ending injury list with an ACL injury. On August 22nd, roughly two weeks ago, both Ally Schlegel and Lauryn Thompson left the Courage’s game against Boston with injuries. Schlegel has yet to return. While Thompson did return for single-digit minutes against Kansas City, she was still deemed too injured to join the England U-20 squad, and it’s her third time on the injury list with an ankle knock this season.
That’s three separate right wing options injured, to the point where Parkinson was moved out of midfield to play wing. Whether Bia asked for a release because the Courage inquired with her/her agent, or the Courage looked into her after she asked for a release and became a free agent, isn’t clear. But the timing suggests that this was a more immediate decision to bring in depth at a position of need. That doesn’t mean she can’t turn into more than just a depth option over the next year plus.
Looking forward #
As part of the signing, the Courage acquired an extra international slot from Seattle for $60,000. Per Spotrac, they didn’t need this slot to make this signing compliant. It leaves them with one open international slot through the end of 2027, in case they want to bring on another international player in that timeframe.
Currently the Courage have the maximum roster size of 26 active players, with two on the season-ending injury list. If the Courage decide to bring on another player in 2026, they will have to remove a player from the active roster by one of transfer, contract termination, or putting themr on injured reserve (45-day or season-ending).