Rui Costa

Rui Costa
Personal information
Full name	Rui Manuel César Costa
Date of birth	March 29, 1972 (1972-03-29) (age 37)
Place of birth	Lisbon, Portugal
Height	1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)
Playing position	Attacking Midfielder
Club information
Current club	SL Benfica (Director of football)
Senior clubs1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1990-1991 1991-1994 1994-2001 2001-2006 2006-2008	AD Fafe SL Benfica Fiorentina AC Milan SL Benfica	38 (6) 112 (18) 239 (40) 169 (7) 43 (5)
National team
1993-2004	Portugal	94 (26)
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. * Appearances (Goals)

Rui Manuel César Costa, OIH, usually referred to simply as Rui Costa (pron. IPA: [ʁui 'kɔʃtɐ]) (born March 29, 1972 in Lisbon) is a former Portuguese football player and current Director of Football of SL Benfica. An attacking midfielder also capable of playing as a deep-seated defensive midfielder, he most recently played for Portuguese club SL Benfica. In 2004, he was named by Pelé to the FIFA 100, a list of the 125 greatest living football players.

Career

At the age of five, Costa joined the infant indoor soccer team of Damaia Ginásio Clube. Roughly four years later, at the age of ten, Rui tried his luck at SL Benfica. Within ten minutes of training, Portugal legend Eusébio, who was supervising the youngsters, was impressed at Rui's skills. Up until 1990 Rui played for Benfica's youth squads. That season he was loaned to AD Fafe on a season long deal.

In 1991, after the Under-21 World Cup, which Portugal won after a victorious penalty kick scored by Costa, he returned to Benfica. There, he won the Cup of Portugal in 1993 and the Portuguese First Division title in 1993/94. This would be Benfica's last league title for eleven years. At the end of his third season in Benfica's senior squad, Fiorentina offered 1.2 million contos (about 6 million euros) for the young midfielder, an impressive fee at the time. Since Benfica was struggling with financial problems, Rui Costa had to leave.

Rui played for 7 seasons at Fiorentina, where he won Italian Cups twice in 1995/96 and 2000/01. Despite the heavy competition with the best midfielders in that time such as Zidane, Rui Costa was named the best number 10 player in the Serie A a few times. His departure from Fiorentina was discussed every season, since many clubs constantly showed interest in signing him. However, he only left when Fiorentina went bankrupt after the 2001/02 season.

Fatih Terim was the coach of Fiorentina in the 2000/2001 season. When he was leaving Fiorentina for AC Milan, he took Rui Costa with him paying 35 million euros for the player. In doing so, Rui Costa became Milan's most expensive transfer of all-time. Rui played for five seasons in Milan, where he won one Serie A title, one Italian Cup, one Italian Super Cup, one UEFA Champions League and one European Super Cup.

Rui Costa was an high-profile figure for his first two seasons at A.C. Milan, but went to be a mere fringe player with the emergence of the Brazilian wonder-kid Kaká. Though pleased with Kaká's success, Rui Costa was disappointed to be restricted to the bench in the twilight of his career.

In 2004, Rui played his last match for the Portuguese squad at the Euro 2004 final, when Portugal lost to Greece 1-0.

On May 25, 2006, Rui Costa's return to SL Benfica to play for the forthcoming season was announced in a press conference. He had been released from AC Milan after both the player and the club reached an agreement to end his contract. Rui Costa also gave up his 4.6 million euro per year contract to play in the club that, year after year, had dreamt of his return.^[1] Rui's affection for Benfica is publicly known and so is his desire to end his career at the Portuguese club. On 11 May 2008 Costa played his last game for Benfica against Vitoria de Setubal, before announcing his retirement from football.

On the following day, Rui Costa was presented as the new leader of the football department, hiring Quique Flores as the new manager of Benfica and being responsible for the formation of the team in the next season.

During the 2008 Summer Transfer window, Rui Costa was able - already as Director of Football - to sign a few well-known players, such as Argentinean playmaker Pablo Aimar, Spanish left-winger José Antonio Reyes and Honduran striker David Suazo, thus gaining general praise from both board and fans alike.

Golden Generation

Costa is a member of the popularly coined "Golden Generation" in Portuguese football, alongside players such as Luís Figo. The Portuguese under-20 national team won two successive World Youth Championships in 1989 and 1991; Costa and fellow FIFA 100 member Figo were members of the 1991 team. With their success at youth level, much was expected of the Portuguese national team at senior level. However, they did not win a major international tournament at senior level, although they reached the semi-finals at Euro 2000, qualified for the 2002 World Cup and the last several members helped lead Portugal to its first-ever major final at Euro 2004, losing to Greece. Despite being principally a provider, Costa scored 26 goals in 94 games for Portugal. Despite not winning any major international titles, they managed to bring Portugal to their finest moments since the days of the legendary Eusebio in the 60's

Career statistics

Honours

• UEFA Champions League (2003)
• Serie A (2004)
• Italian Super Cup (1996)
• Portuguese First Division (1994)
• Cup of Portugal (1993)
• Coppa Italia (1996, 2001, 2003)
• FIFA World Youth Championship (1991)
• European Supercup (2003)
• FIFA 100

References

External links

• Player Profile at www.Portugoal.net
• Rui Costa's stats and profile
• Rui Costa's Unofficial Website
• Rui Costa's Career Retrospective
• UEFA Bio

Portugal squad – UEFA Euro 1996 1 Baía • 2 Secretário • 3 Paulinho Santos • 4 Oceano • 5 Couto • 6 Tavares • 7 Paneira • 8 Pinto • 9 Sá Pinto • 10 Costa • 11 Cadete • 12 Alfredo • 13 Dimas • 14 Barbosa • 15 Domingos • 16 Hélder • 17 Porfírio • 18 Folha • 19 Sousa • 20 Figo • 21 Madeira • 22 Correia • Coach: Oliveira

Portugal squad – UEFA Euro 2000 semi-finalists 1 Baía • 2 J. Costa • 3 Rui Jorge • 4 Vidigal • 5 Couto • 6 Sousa • 7 Figo • 8 Pinto • 9 Sá Pinto • 10 R. Costa • 11 Conceição • 12 Espinha • 13 Dimas • 14 Xavier • 15 Costinha • 16 Beto • 17 Bento • 18 Pauleta • 19 Capucho • 20 Secretário • 21 Nuno Gomes • 22 Quim • Coach: Coelho

Portugal squad – 2002 FIFA World Cup 1 Baía • 2 J. Costa • 3 Xavier • 4 Caneira • 5 Couto • 6 Sousa • 7 Figo • 8 Pinto • 9 Pauleta • 10 Rui Costa • 11 Conceição • 12 Viana • 13 Andrade • 14 Barbosa • 15 Nélson • 16 Ricardo • 17 Bento • 18 Frechaut • 19 Capucho • 20 Petit • 21 Nuno Gomes • 22 Beto • 23 Rui Jorge • Coach: Oliveira

Portugal squad – UEFA Euro 2004 Runners-up 1 Ricardo • 2 Ferreira • 3 Rui Jorge • 4 Andrade • 5 Couto • 6 Costinha • 7 Figo • 8 Petit • 9 Pauleta • 10 R. Costa • 11 Simão • 12 Quim • 13 Miguel • 14 Valente • 15 Beto • 16 Carvalho • 17 Ronaldo • 18 Maniche • 19 Tiago • 20 Deco • 21 Nuno Gomes • 22 Moreira • 23 Postiga • Coach: Scolari