Former top footballer Jorge Costa passed away suddenly on Tuesday. The Portuguese player was the captain of FC Porto that surprisingly won the Champions League in 2004. He was 53 years old.
According to FC Porto, Costa died on Tuesday afternoon due to a cardiac arrest. Earlier in the day, he was still on Portuguese television. He worked as a technical director at the Portuguese club, which signed Luuk de Jong on Sunday.
Costa made a name for himself as a defender at FC Porto. From 1990 to 2005, he played no fewer than 324 matches for the club. Only seven footballers have played more matches for the thirty-time national champion of Portugal.
The highlight of his fine career came in 2004, when he won the Champions League as captain of José Mourinho’s team. Porto triumphed in the final 3-0 against AS Monaco. A year earlier, Costa had won the UEFA Cup with Porto.
Costa also played fifty international matches for Portugal. He played at, among other things, the European Championship of 2000 in the Netherlands and Belgium, where the Portuguese reached the semi-finals. After the 2002 World Cup in South Korea and Japan, he ended his international career.
After his active playing career, which also took him to Standard Liège in the 2005/2006 season, Costa started working as a coach and administrator. Last year he returned to FC Porto, where he started working as a technical director. In a statement, FC Porto says they will never forget him. “He was an unmistakable figure in the club’s history.”