Helena Margarida dos Santos e Costa (born 15 April 1978) is a Portuguese

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities o ...

. She is currently Head of Scouting at

Watford Watford () is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, 15 miles northwest of Central London, on the River Colne. Initially a small market town, the Grand Junction Canal encouraged the construction of paper-making mills, print works, a ...

Career

Costa has a master's degree in sports science and a UEFA A Licence in coaching. From 1997 to 2010, she coached Benfica's youth team, leading them to second place in the national championship in 2005. At the same time, she managed lower league side Cheleirense, winning the Lisbon championship in 2006. She also managed women's sides, winning two league titles with

S.U. 1º Dezembro Sociedade União 1º Dezembro is a sports club from Sintra, Portugal. The football section of the club was founded on 6 April 1938, the S.U. 1º Dezembro (women), women's football section in 1995. The men's football team plays in the Liga 3 (Port ...

in 2007 and 2008, and taking

Odivelas Odivelas ( or ) is a city and a municipality in Lisbon metropolitan area, Portugal, in the Lisbon District and the historical and cultural Estremadura Province. The municipality is located 10 km northwest of Lisbon. The present Mayor is Hugo ...

to promotion to the top flight as

second division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

champions. From 2008 to 2011, she was a scout for Scottish club

Celtic F.C. The Celtic Football Club, commonly known as Celtic (), is a Scottish professional football club based in Glasgow, which plays in the Scottish Premiership. The club was founded in 1887 with the purpose of alleviating poverty in the immigran ...

in Portugal and Spain. Costa returned to Celtic as a scout for separate spells in 2012 and in 2013. As an international manager, she managed Qatar's women to their first ever victory (4–1 against the Maldives in 2012). On 22 October 2012 she was appointed manager of Iran's women but could not lead them to the 2015 World Cup. She was initially going to coach French

Ligue 2 Ligue 2 (, League 2), also known as Ligue 2 BKT due to sponsor (commercial), sponsorship by Balkrishna Industries, is a French professional football league. The league serves as the second division of French football and is one of two divisions ...

club Clermont Foot from the end of the 2013–14 seasonHelena Costa: French Ligue 2 side Clermont Foot name woman boss
BBC Sport, 7 May 2014 becoming the first female coach of a professional football club in France, and the first in the top two tiers of a major European league. France's Women's Minister,

Najat Vallaud-Belkacem Najat Vallaud-Belkacem (; ar, link=no, نجاة فالو بلقاسم; Riffian-Berber: ⵏⴰⵊⴰⵜ ⴱⵍⵇⴰⵙⵎ; born 4 October 1977) is a former Moroccan- French jurist and politician of the Socialist Party (PS) who was the first Fr ...

, reacted to Costa's announced appointment at Clermont Foot by writing "Congratulations to Clermont Foot for understanding that giving a place to women is the future of professional football" on Twitter. However, in June 2014, she decided to quit the position, citing "total amateurism" and a "lack of respect" from the part of the club, with the sporting director having players signed without her consent, and would not reply to her attempts to contact him. Costa was replaced by another woman,

Corinne Diacre Corinne Catherine Diacre (born 4 August 1974) is a French professional football manager and former player who played as a defender. She played her entire club career with Soyaux in the Division 1. She was also an international player with the ...

. Costa was appointed as a scout for

Eintracht Frankfurt Eintracht Frankfurt e.V. () is a professional sports club based in Frankfurt, Hesse, Germany. It is best known for its football club, which was founded on 8 March 1899. The team is currently playing in the Bundesliga, the top tier of the Germa ...

in June 2017. In December 2022, Costa followed

Ben Manga Bienvenido "Ben" Manga Ubenga (born 11 February 1974) is an Equatorial Guinea, Equatoguinean former Association football, footballer who played as a midfielder. He was technical director of Watford F.C., Watford until October 2023 Career Manga ...

from Germany to England to join

EFL Championship The English Football League Championship (often referred to as the Championship for short or the Sky Bet Championship for sponsorship purposes) is the highest division of the English Football League (EFL) and second-highest overall in the E ...

club

as Head of Scouting.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Costa, Helena Living people Portuguese football managers 1978 births People from Vila Franca de Xira Female association football managers Clermont Foot managers Portuguese expatriates in Iran Celtic F.C. non-playing staff Expatriate football managers in Qatar Expatriate football managers in Iran Association football scouts Eintracht Frankfurt non-playing staff Watford F.C. non-playing staff Sportspeople from Lisbon District