Jorge António Pinto do Couto (born 1 July 1970) 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

right 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. ...

. 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 287 matches and 27 goals over 14 seasons, representing in the competition

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 ...

and Boavista and winning 13 major titles between both clubs. From 2015, Couto worked as a coach in different roles at Boavista.

Playing career

Club

Couto was born in Argoncilhe,

Santa Maria da Feira Santa Maria da Feira () is a city and a concelho, municipality in Aveiro District in Portugal, 23 km from central Porto. The population in 2011 was 139,309,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 ...

Gil Vicente FC Gil Vicente Futebol Clube (), commonly known as Gil Vicente, founded in 1924, is a Portuguese professional football club that plays in Barcelos. It plays their home matches at the Estádio Cidade de Barcelos. It competes in the Primeira Liga, the ...

(on loan from his ''

alma mater Alma mater (; : almae matres) is an allegorical Latin phrase meaning "nourishing mother". It personifies a school that a person has attended or graduated from. The term is related to ''alumnus'', literally meaning 'nursling', which describes a sc ...

'') and

Boavista FC Boavista Futebol Clube (), commonly known as Boavista, is a Portuguese professional sports club from the of Porto that competes in the Primeira Liga, the top flight of Portuguese football, at the Estádio do Bessa. It is one of the oldest clubs ...

. With the first club he was used regularly in his early years, mainly from the bench but was a fringe player subsequently. With Boavista from 1996 until his retirement, Couto had his best years, helping to the side's

and European consolidation although he was already slowing down as they won their only first division title in

2001 The year's most prominent event was the September 11 attacks against the United States by al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror. The United States led a Participan ...

, being barred by younger

Martelinho Joaquim Pereira da Silva (born 19 November 1974), known as Martelinho, is a Portuguese retired footballer who played as a right winger, currently a manager. He played ten full Primeira Liga seasons during his 14-year senior career, all with Bo ...

but still contributing 17 matches and three goals to the feat.

International

Couto scored one of the two goals for the Portugal under-20 team in the 2–0 final win against

Nigeria Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...

, as the nation won the first of its two consecutive

FIFA U-20 World Cup The FIFA U-20 World Cup is the biennial football world championship tournament for FIFA members' men's national teams with players under the age of 20. The competition has been staged every two years since the inaugural tournament in 1977 when i ...

s. He won six

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 ...

at full international level, mostly while at Porto, the first arriving at age 20. He was not related to club and national teammate

Fernando Couto Fernando Manuel Silva Couto (; born 2 August 1969) is a Portuguese former professional footballer who played as a centre back. During a 21-year professional career, he played in a number of top clubs in Portugal, Spain and Italy (12 seasons ...

Coaching career

In July 2015, Couto returned to Boavista as assistant to former teammate and new coach

Petit Petit is a French-language surname literally meaning "small" or "little". Notable people with the surname include: *Adriana Petit (born 1984), Spanish multidisciplinary artist *Alexis Thérèse Petit (1791–1820), French physicist * Amandine Pet ...

. Two years later, he was put in charge of the

Estádio do Bessa The Estádio do Bessa Sec. XXI (') is a soccer, football stadium located in the Boavista area of Porto, Portugal, used by Boavista F.C., Boavista Futebol Clube. Like other stadiums used in Euro 2004, the Bessa is a new ground but built on top of ...

club's new

reserve team In sports, a reserve team is a team composed of players who are under contract to a club but who do not regularly play in matches for the club's primary team. Reserve teams usually include players who are part of the larger first-team squad but ...

. Couto became

caretaker manager In association footballing terms, a caretaker manager or interim manager is somebody who takes temporary charge of the management of a football team, usually when the regular manager is dismissed or leaves for a different club. However, a caret ...

of the main squad on 26 January 2019 after the dismissal of Jorge Simão. In his one game three days later, they lost 5–1 at

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 " ...

before Lito Vidigal was installed. Having already been suspended for ten days and fined €1,913 by the

Portuguese Football Federation The Portuguese Football Federation ( , FPF) is the governing body of Association football, football in Portugal. The federation was formed in 1914 as Portuguese Football Union (, UPF) by the three existing regional associations of Lisbon Footbal ...

in October 2016 for insulting the refereeing team, Couto was suspended for 15 days and fined €3,507 in April 2021 by the same body for the same offence. In December 2023, he went back into interim charge after Petit's resignation, and drew 1–1 on his debut at home to

Vitória de Guimarães Vitoria or Vitória may refer to: People * Francisco de Vitoria (c. 1483–1546), a Spanish Renaissance theologian * Alberto Vitoria (1956–2010), Spanish footballer * Rui Vitória (born 1970), Portuguese retired footballer * Sofia Vitória (bor ...

; following Ricardo Paiva's appointment later that month, he returned to assistant duties. Couto was again briefly in charge of Boavista as an interim in the 2024–25 season, taking over from Vidigal at the bottom-placed side.

Honours

Porto *

: 1989–90, 1991–92, 1992–93, 1994–95, 1995–96 *

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 ...

: 1990–91, 1993–94 *

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 ...

1990 Important events of 1990 include the Reunification of Germany and the unification of Yemen, the formal beginning of the Human Genome Project (finished in 2003), the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope, the separation of Namibia from South ...

1991 It was the final year of the Cold War, which had begun in 1947. During the year, the Soviet Union Dissolution of the Soviet Union, collapsed, leaving Post-soviet states, fifteen sovereign republics and the Commonwealth of Independent State ...

1993 The United Nations General Assembly, General Assembly of the United Nations designated 1993 as: * International Year for the World's Indigenous People The year 1993 in the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands had only 364 days, since its ...

Boavista *Primeira Liga: 2000–01 *Taça de Portugal: 1996–97 *Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira:

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 ...

Portugal *

1989 1989 was a turning point in political history with the "Revolutions of 1989" which ended communism in Eastern Bloc of Europe, starting in Poland and Hungary, with experiments in power-sharing coming to a head with the opening of the Berlin W ...

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Couto, Jorge 1970 births Living people 20th-century Portuguese sportsmen Portuguese men's footballers Footballers from Santa Maria da Feira Men's association football wingers Primeira Liga players Liga Portugal 2 players FC Porto players Gil Vicente F.C. players Boavista F.C. players Portugal men's youth international footballers Portugal men's under-21 international footballers Portugal men's international footballers Portuguese football coaches Portuguese football managers Primeira Liga managers Boavista F.C. managers