Francisco José Rodrigues da Costa (born 1 December 1974), known as Costinha (), is a Portuguese former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who played as a

defensive midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. ...

. He was also a

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a government bodies through business administration, nonprofit management, or the political science sub-field of public administra ...

. Best known for his tackling and positioning, as well as his athleticism, stamina and workrate, he played for clubs in Portugal, France, Russia, Spain and Italy. He won eight trophies with

Porto Porto (), also known in English language, English as Oporto, is the List of cities in Portugal, second largest city in Portugal, after Lisbon. It is the capital of the Porto District and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto c ...

, including the 2004 Champions League. Costinha played more than 50 times with

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

, appearing with the national team in one

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the name is ...

and two

European Championships A European Championship is the top level international sports competition between European athletes or sports teams representing their respective countries or professional sports clubs. In the plural, the European Championships also refers t ...

and being part of the squad that reached the final in

Euro 2004 The 2004 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 2004, was the 12th edition of the UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football competition contested by the men's national teams of UEFA member associations. Th ...

. After retiring, he worked as a manager for

Beira-Mar Sport Clube Beira-Mar (), commonly known as Beira-Mar, is a Portuguese sports club based in Aveiro, Portugal. Its Association football, football team currently plays in the Campeonato de Portugal (league), Campeonato de Portugal, the fourth natio ...

, Paços Ferreira, Académica and

Nacional Nacional, the Portuguese and Spanish word for "national", may refer to: Airlines * Nacional Transportes Aéreos, a Brazilian airline defunct in 2002 * Transportes Aéreos Nacional, a Brazilian airline defunct in 1961 Bank * Banco Nacional, a ...

Club career

Early career

Costinha was born in

Lisbon Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...

to an

Angola Angola, officially the Republic of Angola, is a country on the west-Central Africa, central coast of Southern Africa. It is the second-largest Portuguese-speaking world, Portuguese-speaking (Lusophone) country in both total area and List of c ...

n father, who had immigrated to the Portuguese capital in the 1960s. A childhood

Sporting CP Sporting Clube de Portugal (), otherwise referred to as Sporting CP or simply Sporting (particularly within Portugal), or as Sporting Lisbon in other countries,

fan, he began his career in the third division with

Clube Oriental de Lisboa Clube Oriental de Lisboa is a Portuguese football club based in Lisbon. Founded in 1946, it currently competes in the Campeonato de Portugal, holding home games at ''Campo Engenheiro Carlos Salema'', with an 8,500 capacity. History In January 19 ...

, A.D. Machico and C.D. Nacional.

Monaco

In the summer of 1997, Costinha signed a five-year contract with

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known as the Primera División or La Liga, and officially known as LaLiga EA Sports for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Spain and the highest ...

Valencia CF Valencia Club de Fútbol, S. A. D. (; ), commonly referred to as Valencia CF or simply Valencia, is a Spanish professional Association football, football club based in Valencia, Spain, that currently plays in La Liga, the top tier of the Spani ...

, but backed out when manager

Jorge Valdano Jorge Alberto Francisco Valdano Castellanos (born 4 October 1955) is an Argentine former football player, coach, and the former general manager of Real Madrid. He is currently working as a commentator for beIN Sports. Nicknamed "The Philosophe ...

wanted to loan him to

Villarreal CF Villarreal Club de Fútbol, Sociedad Anónima Deportiva, S.A.D., usually abbreviated to Villarreal CF, is a Spanish professional association football, football club based in Villarreal, in the Province of Castellón, Castellón province of easte ...

; he then caught the interest of French club

AS Monaco FC Association Sportive de Monaco Football Club, commonly referred to as AS Monaco (), is a professional association football, football club based in Fontvieille, Monaco, Fontvieille, Monaco. Although not in France, they are a member of the Frenc ...

who acquired him through the influence of agent Jorge Mendes. After a tentative first season he became an important first-team member, helping with 28 matches and one goal to the 1999–2000 conquest of the

Ligue 1 Ligue 1 (; ), officially known as Ligue 1 McDonald's France, McDonald's for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in France and the highest level of the French football league system. Administered by the Ligue de ...

championship; he was part of a talented side which ousted

Manchester United Manchester United Football Club, commonly referred to as Man United (often stylised as Man Utd) or simply United, is a professional association football, football club based in Old Trafford (area), Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, Engl ...

from the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for Lunar water, frozen water, in soil i ...

, on the

away goals rule The away goals rule is a method of tiebreaking in association football and other sports when teams play each other twice, once at each team's home ground. Under the away goals rule, if the total goals scored by each team are equal, the team that ...

Porto

Costinha joined

FC Porto Futebol Clube do Porto, Order of Prince Henry, MHIH, Order of Merit (Portugal), OM (), commonly known as FC Porto or simply Porto, is a Portuguese professional sports club based in Porto. It is best known for the professional association footbal ...

on a five-year deal in May 2001, and made his

Primeira Liga The Primeira Liga (), also known as Liga Portugal Betclic for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Portugal and the highest level of the Portuguese football league system. Organised and supervised by the Liga ...

debut on 12 August aged nearly 27; he was sent off in a 1–0 loss away to Sporting. He went on to be an instrumental midfield element in the northerners' two consecutive national championships. On 9 March 2004, he scored against and effectively knocked out Manchester United in the Champions League round of 16; Porto went on to win the title, beating his former side Monaco 3–0 in the final.

Later career

Again a starter throughout most of the 2004–05 campaign, Costinha was sold to

FC Dynamo Moscow FC Dynamo Moscow (''FC Dynamo Moskva'', , ) is a Russian professional association football, football club based in Moscow. Dynamo returned to the Russian Premier League for the 2017–18 season after one season in the second-tier Russian Footba ...

in May 2005 for

€ The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists of a stylized letter E (or epsilon), crossed by t ...

4 million alongside teammates

Maniche Nuno Ricardo de Oliveira Ribeiro (born 11 November 1977), known as Maniche (), is a Portuguese retired professional footballer who played as a central midfielder. He played top-flight football in Portugal, Russia, England, Spain, Italy and G ...

and Giourkas Seitaridis, following

Derlei Vanderlei Fernandes Silva (born 14 July 1975), known as Derlei, is a Brazilian former professional footballer who played as a striker. He spent most of his 16-year professional career in Portugal (one full decade), having represented all thre ...

who left in January. The following month, he was suspended after an incident in a training camp in Israel. Unsettled, he moved to

Atlético Madrid Club Atlético de Madrid, S.A.D. (; meaning "Athletic Club of Madrid"), commonly referred to as Atlético Madrid or simply Atlético, is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid that plays in La Liga. The club play their home game ...

on a two-year contract ahead of 2006–07. Costinha was released by the Spaniards in August 2007, joining

Atalanta BC Atalanta Bergamasca Calcio (), commonly referred to as Atalanta, is a professional football club based in Bergamo, Lombardy, Italy, who compete in Serie A, the top tier of the Italian league system. Founded in 1907, Atalanta holds the record ...

Serie A The Serie A (), officially known as Serie A Enilive in Italy and Serie A Made in Italy abroad for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Italy and the highest tier of the Italian football league system. Establish ...

, where he appeared very rarely throughout his spell – only one match, in his first season – due to serious injuries and later because he was not considered fit to play competitively, despite him having the highest salary in the first team (€700,000 per year, in a contract due to expire in June 2010). The club tried to agree a mutual termination of the contract with him, and also attempted unsuccessfully to rescind it through the Italian Football League.

International career

Costinha made his debut for

on 14 October 1998, in a 3–0 home win over

Slovakia Slovakia, officially the Slovak Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the west, and the Czech Republic to the northwest. Slovakia's m ...

for the

UEFA Euro 2000 The 2000 UEFA European Football Championship, also known as Euro 2000, was the 11th UEFA European Championship, a football tournament held every four years and organised by UEFA, the sport's governing body in Europe. The finals tournament was ...

qualifiers; he entered as a 67th-minute substitute in place of

Rui Costa Rui Manuel César Costa (; born 29 March 1972) is a Portuguese former professional footballer who is the 34th president of sports club S.L. Benfica. He also succeeded Luís Filipe Vieira as president of the club's SAD board of directors. ...

. He was selected for the final stages, where he scored an

injury time Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the ga ...

header against

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

(same score). He also played at

and the

2006 FIFA World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international Association football, football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to FIFA World Cup hosts ...

tournaments. During the latter, on 25 June, he took part in the Battle of Nuremberg, being one of four players sent off in the 1–0 round-of-16 victory over the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

after two bookable offences, the second being a handball. Costinha finished his international career with 53

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Java ...

and two goals, having been rarely called during the Euro 2008 qualifying stage.

Coaching career

Director

On 23 February 2010, the 35-year-old Costinha left Atalanta by mutual consent. He immediately retired, being named shortly afterwards as Sporting's

director of football A sporting director, or director of sport, is an senior management, executive management position in a sports club. The role is well known as a manager role for European football clubs, which are sometime also "sports clubs", offering many typ ...

, succeeding the sacked

Ricardo Sá Pinto Ricardo Manuel Andrade e Silva Sá Pinto (born 10 October 1972) is a Portuguese former professional Association football, footballer who played as a Forward (association football), forward, currently a Manager (association football), manager. H ...

, his former international teammate. On 9 February 2011, the day after an interview to

Sport TV Sport TV is a Portuguese sports-oriented premium cable and satellite television network with seven premium channels in Portugal, one sports news channel and one channel in Portuguese-speaking Africa. The first channel, then only known as Sport ...

in which he criticised the club's board of directors, he was dismissed. In June 2011, in the same capacity, Costinha joined

Servette FC Servette FC is a Swiss professional Association football, football club based in Geneva, founded in March 1890 with rugby as its first sporting activity, and named after the Geneva district of the same name. The football section was created on ...

, with the

Swiss Swiss most commonly refers to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Swiss may also refer to: Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina * Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses * Swiss Café, an old café located ...

team being managed by countryman João Alves. It was reported that the pair did not see eye to eye on certain issues, and in November 2011, Alves was relieved of his duties and replaced by João Carlos Pereira. The team's results worsened under Pereira and in April 2012, both Pereira and Costinha were fired, with Alves being reinstated as manager; Costinha reportedly contested the terms of his removal, claiming that his contract extended until June 2013.

Beira-Mar, Paços Ferreira and Académica

Costinha was hired as manager of S.C. Beira-Mar on 18 February 2013, replacing Ulisses Morais. His debut five days later was a 1–0 defeat at Vitória de Setúbal. He left the club on 22 May, after its top-flight relegation. On 12 June 2013, Costinha was appointed at fellow top-tier F.C. Paços de Ferreira, who had made the qualifying rounds of the Champions League for the first time in their history; his midfield partner for Portugal and three teams,

, was hired as assistant. Costinha was sacked after only four months, however, due to poor results. Costinha took over at Académica de Coimbra, recently relegated from the top division, on 20 June 2016. Maniche again assisted him, until leaving for personal reasons in October.

Nacional

On 30 May 2017, Costinha was appointed as manager of Nacional. In his first year, they were promoted back to the top tier as champions. Costinha left a year later by mutual consent, due to the

Madeira Madeira ( ; ), officially the Autonomous Region of Madeira (), is an autonomous Regions of Portugal, autonomous region of Portugal. It is an archipelago situated in the North Atlantic Ocean, in the region of Macaronesia, just under north of ...

team's relegation as second-bottom. Negative highlights included a 10–0 loss against eventual champions

S.L. Benfica (), commonly known as Benfica, is a professional football club based in Lisbon, Portugal, that competes in the Primeira Liga, the top flight of Portuguese football. Founded on 28 February 1904, as ''Sport Lisboa'', Benfica is one of the " ...

, on 10 February 2019. Costinha returned to Nacional – again relegated from the main division – on 28 June 2021, on a one-year deal. He left on 20 September, having achieved a win and a draw in five games.

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list Portugal's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Costinha goal.''

Managerial statistics

Honours

Player

Monaco *

: 1999–2000 *

Trophée des Champions The Trophée des Champions (, ) is a French association football trophy contested in an annual match between the champions of Ligue 1 and the winners of the Coupe de France. It is equivalent to the Super cup, super cups found in many other count ...

1997 Events January * January 1 – The Emergency Alert System is introduced in the United States. * January 11 – Turkey threatens Cyprus on account of a deal to buy Russian S-300 missiles, prompting the Cypriot Missile Crisis. * January 1 ...

2000 2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year. Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...

Porto *

: 2002–03, 2003–04 *

Taça de Portugal The Taça de Portugal (; ) is an annual association football competition and the premier knockout tournament in Portuguese football. For sponsorship reasons, it has been known as Taça de Portugal Generali Tranquilidade since the 2024–25 seaso ...

: 2002–03 *

Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira The Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira (; English: Cândido de Oliveira Super Cup, or simply Portuguese Super Cup) is an annual Portuguese association football, football match played since 1979 between the winners of the top-tier league (Primeira L ...

2003 2003 was designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Fresh water, Freshwater. In 2003, a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition 2003 invasion of Iraq, invaded Iraq, starting the Iraq War. Demographic ...

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and Its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...

: 2003–04 *

UEFA Cup The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

: 2002–03 * Intercontinental Cup:

Portugal *

UEFA European Championship The UEFA European Football Championship, less formally the European Championship and informally the Euro or Euros, is the primary association football tournament organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). The competition ...

runner-up:

Manager

Nacional *

LigaPro The Liga Portugal 2 (), also known as Liga Portugal Meu Super for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division of the Portuguese football league system. At the end of each season, the two top-finishing teams are promoted to the top-tier ...

: 2017–18

Orders

PRT Ordem de Nossa Senhora da Conceicao de Vila Vicosa Cavaleiro ribbon

Medal of Merit,

Order of the Immaculate Conception of Vila Viçosa The Order of the Immaculate Conception of Vila Viçosa (also known as The Royal Military Order of Our Lady of the Conception of Vila Viçosa; ) is a dynastic order of knighthood of the House of Braganza, the former Portuguese Royal Family. The cur ...

(

House of Braganza The Most Serene House of Braganza (), also known as the Brigantine dynasty (''dinastia Brigantina''), is a dynasty of emperors, kings, princes, and dukes of Portuguese people, Portuguese origin which reigned in Europe and the Americas. The hous ...

)

References

External links

* * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Costinha 1974 births Living people Portuguese sportspeople of Angolan descent Black Portuguese sportspeople Portuguese men's footballers Footballers from Lisbon Men's association football midfielders Primeira Liga players Segunda Divisão players Clube Oriental de Lisboa players C.D. Nacional players FC Porto players Ligue 1 players AS Monaco FC players Russian Premier League players FC Dynamo Moscow players La Liga players Atlético Madrid footballers Serie A players Atalanta BC players UEFA Champions League–winning players UEFA Europa League–winning players Portugal men's international footballers UEFA Euro 2000 players UEFA Euro 2004 players 2006 FIFA World Cup players Portuguese expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Monaco Expatriate men's footballers in Russia Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Expatriate men's footballers in Italy Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Monaco Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Russia Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Spain Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Italy Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Switzerland Portuguese football managers Primeira Liga managers Liga Portugal 2 managers S.C. Beira-Mar managers F.C. Paços de Ferreira managers Académica de Coimbra (football) managers C.D. Nacional managers Sporting CP non-playing staff Servette FC non-playing staff