Diamantino José Vieira da Costa (born 29 February 1948) is a Portuguese retired

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

left winger 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. ...

Over the course of 14 seasons, he amassed

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 ...

totals of 215 games and eighteen goals, mainly at Benfica, where he won eight major titles.

Club career

Born in

Portimão Portimão () is a city and a municipality in the district of Faro (district), Faro, in the Algarve region of southern Portugal. The population in 2022 was 63,079 in an area of 182.06 km2. It was formerly known as Vila Nova de Portimão. In ...

, Costa is a youth graduate from

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 " ...

, he made his professional debut on 3 November 1966 against Ovarense, also scoring his first goal. After two seasons playing for the reserves, he went on loan to Varzim in 1968–69. During the next seasons, he was mostly used as substitute for

António Simões António Simões da Costa (; born 14 December 1943), known as Simões, is a Portuguese former footballer who played as a left winger. He spent 14 professional seasons with Benfica, playing 449 official games and scoring 72 goals. In the lat ...

, winning 6 Primeira Liga's and two Taças de Portugal. On 26 November 1969, he scored the third goal against

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language *Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Foot ...

in a second-round game of the

1969–70 European Cup The 1969–70 European Cup was the 15th season of the European Cup, a club football tournament organised by UEFA for the domestic league champions of its member associations. It was won by Feyenoord of the Netherlands, who beat Scottish club C ...

. After a final 3–3 on aggregate, Celtic passed on

coin toss A coin is a small object, usually round and flat, used primarily as a medium of exchange or legal tender. They are standardized in weight, and produced in large quantities at a mint in order to facilitate trade. They are most often issued by a ...

. In 1977, Costa left Benfica and joined freshly created

Team Hawaii Team Hawaii was a soccer team based out of Honolulu that played in the NASL for one season, 1977. Their home field was Aloha Stadium. After two unsuccessful years as the San Antonio Thunder, the franchise moved to Hawai'i in time for the ...

, later moving to the

Las Vegas Quicksilvers The Las Vegas Quicksilvers were an American soccer team that competed in the North American Soccer League (NASL) during the 1977 season. The team was based in Las Vegas, Nevada, and played their home games at Las Vegas Stadium. After the 19 ...

, reuniting with

Eusébio Eusébio da Silva Ferreira (; 25 January 1942 – 5 January 2014), nicknamed the "Black Panther", the "Black Pearl" or "O Rei" ("The King"), was a Portuguese Association football, footballer who played as a Forward (association football)#Stri ...

. Following this brief period, he returned to his home town club

Portimonense Portimonense Sporting Clube is a Portuguese sports club based in Portimão. Founded on 14 August 1914, it is most notable for its professional football team, which currently plays in the Liga Portugal 2, the second division of Portuguese football ...

, earning a

Segunda Divisão : : The Segunda Divisão Portuguesa ( English: ''Portuguese Second Division'') was a football league situated at the third level of the Portuguese football league system. The division had previously been the second level of the Portuguese pyrami ...

title in 1978–79. He played a further five seasons, mostly at Estoril-Praia, retiring at age 37.

Honours

Benfica * Portuguese League: 1970–71, 1971–72,

1972–73 Year 197 ( CXCVII) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Magius and Rufinus (or, less frequently, year 950 ''Ab urbe condita''). The denomination 197 for this y ...

, 1974–75, 1975–76, 1976–77 *

Portuguese Cup Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

: 1969–70, 1971–72

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Costa, Diamantino 1948 births Living people Footballers from Portimão Portuguese men's footballers Men's association football wingers Primeira Liga players Liga Portugal 2 players S.L. Benfica footballers Varzim S.C. players Team Hawaii players Las Vegas Quicksilvers players Portimonense S.C. players G.D. Estoril Praia players Portugal men's youth international footballers Portugal men's under-21 international footballers Portuguese expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's soccer players in the United States Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in the United States North American Soccer League (1968–1984) players 20th-century Portuguese sportsmen