Pedro Miguel de Castro Brandão Costa (born 21 November 1981) is a Portuguese retired professional

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 le ...

who played mainly as a

right-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

Club career

Costa was born in Arouca,

Aveiro District Aveiro District ( pt, Distrito de Aveiro, or ) is located in the central coastal region of Portugal. The capital of the district is the city of Aveiro, which also serves as the seat of Aveiro Municipality. Aveiro District is bordered by the Po ...

. A product of

Boavista FC Boavista Futebol Clube, commonly known as Boavista (), is a Portuguese sports club from the city of Porto. Founded on 1 August 1903 by British entrepreneurs and Portuguese textile workers (thus the "FC" being appended – the British way as oppos ...

's youth system that still appeared with modest

Gondomar S.C. Gondomar Sport Club is a Portuguese football club based in Gondomar, Porto District. Founded on 1 May 1921, it currently plays in the fourth-tier Campeonato de Portugal, holding home games at '' Estádio de São Miguel'', with a capacity of 2.45 ...

and

F.C. Famalicão Futebol Clube de Famalicão, commonly known as Famalicão, is a Portuguese association football, football club from Vila Nova de Famalicão. Founded on 21 August 1931, its senior team currently plays in the Primeira Liga, the top tier of Portugu ...

in his early years as a senior, he joined

Primeira Liga The Primeira Liga (; English: Premier League, also written as Liga Portugal 1), also known as Liga Portugal Bwin for sponsorship reasons, is the top level of the Portuguese football league system. Organised and supervised by the Liga Portugal, ...

club

S.C. Braga Sporting Clube de Braga () (), commonly known as Sporting de Braga or just Braga, is a Portuguese sports club from the city of Braga. It is best known for the professional football team playing in the Primeira Liga, the top flight of Portuguese f ...

in the 2002–03 campaign. He made his first-team debut on 26 April 2003, featuring the full 90 minutes in a 1–3 home loss against

S.L. Benfica Sport Lisboa e Benfica (), commonly known as Benfica, is a professional association football, football club based in Lisbon, Portugal, that competes in the Primeira Liga, the top flight of Portuguese football league system, Portuguese footba ...

. After only 37 league appearances for Braga over five seasons – he was also regularly utilised by the reserves in the third division during his stint – Costa moved to

Associação Académica de Coimbra The Associação Académica de Coimbra (AAC) is the students' union of the University of Coimbra (UC). Founded in Coimbra on November 3, 1887, it is the oldest students' union in Portugal. It is also the biggest Portuguese students' union belongi ...

for the 2007–08 season. Again mainly used as a backup with the ''Students'', he appeared on both sides of the defensive sector when called upon, playing a career-best with the professionals 22 games in his

second year Second year (also known as S2 in Scotland) is the second year of schooling in secondary schools in Scotland and in the Republic of Ireland, and is roughly equivalent to Year 9 in England and Wales and Year 10 (Third Form) in Northern Ireland. Mos ...

as the team finished in seventh position. In June 2011, after having appeared in 11 league matches in the season (13 overall), 30-year-old Costa left Académica and signed for

F.C. Arouca Futebol Clube de Arouca () is a football club based in Arouca, Porto Metropolitan Area, Portugal. Founded in 1951, the club plays in the Primeira Liga, holding home games at Estádio Municipal de Arouca, with a 5,000-seat capacity. History Founde ...

in the Segunda Liga, where he started playing football as a youngster.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Costa, Pedro 1981 births Living people Sportspeople from Aveiro District Portuguese footballers Association football defenders Primeira Liga players Liga Portugal 2 players Segunda Divisão players Boavista F.C. players Gondomar S.C. players F.C. Famalicão players S.C. Braga B players S.C. Braga players Associação Académica de Coimbra – O.A.F. players F.C. Arouca players Portugal youth international footballers