Paulo Sérgio Cardoso da Costa (born 5 December 1979) is a Portuguese footballer who played as an attacking midfielder. After playing professionally in Portugal, Italy, France and Greece, he finally moved to Cyprus in his mid-20s, spending his remaining career there. He scored once from 42

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, ...

games over the course of three seasons, representing

Alverca Alverca do Ribatejo () is a city (''cidade'') and a former civil parish in the municipality of Vila Franca de Xira, Portugal. In 2013, the parish merged into the new parish Alverca do Ribatejo e Sobralinho. It covers an area of and had a pop ...

, Porto and Gil Vicente in the competition.

Club career

Born in Moita, Setúbal District, Costa began playing as a senior at

Sporting Clube Lourinhanense Sporting Clube Lourinhanense, simply Lourinhanense, is a Portuguese football club based in Lourinhã, Lisbon. It currently plays in the Regional Championships, and holds home games at ''Estádio Municipal da Lourinhã'', with a capacity of 2,0 ...

Sporting Clube de Portugal Sporting Clube de Portugal, founded Sporting Club de Portugal (), otherwise referred to as Sporting CP, often known abroad as Sporting Lisbon , is a Portuguese professional sports club based in Lisbon. It is best known for the professional fo ...

's farm team. In 1999 he joined

F.C. Alverca Futebol Clube de Alverca is a Portuguese Association football, football club based in Alverca do Ribatejo, Vila Franca de Xira. It currently plays in the Portuguese 3rd Division. History F.C. Alverca was founded on 1 September 1939. After many ...

, rejoining another youth product of the

powerhouse,

Marco Caneira Marco António Simões Caneira (born 9 February 1979) is a Portuguese former professional footballer. Preferably a central defender, he was equally at ease on the right or left flank. A youth graduate at Sporting CP, he started his career at t ...

. In June 2000, both Costa and Caneira signed with Inter Milan, who bought the pair in a co-ownership deal with Reggina Calcio. Costa was sold for

€ The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone and unilaterally adopted by Kosovo and Montenegro. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists o ...

2 millionFC Internazionale Milano SpA ''bilancio'' (financial report and accounts) on 30 June 2001
PDF purchased from Italian C.C.I.A.A.
(in Italian) and, in June 2001, Reggina acquired him outright for €1,3 million and Inter bought back Caneira for an undisclosed fee; however, in July Costa was bought back from Reggina for €1,6 millionFC Internazionale Milano SpA ''bilancio'' (financial report and accounts) on 30 June 2002
PDF purchased from Italian C.C.I.A.A.
(in Italian) and, in a continuing series of unassuming loans, then played with

FC Porto Futebol Clube do Porto, MHIH, 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 football team playing in the Primeira Liga, the top flight of Portu ...

(which also acquired 50% registration rights for €1,5 million),

A.C. Venezia Venezia Football Club, commonly referred to as Venezia, is a professional Association football club, football club based in Venice, Italy, that currently plays in Serie B. Originally founded as Venezia Foot Ball Club in 1907, the club have spen ...

and

FC Girondins de Bordeaux Football Club des Girondins de Bordeaux (), commonly referred to as Girondins de Bordeaux ( oc, Girondins de Bordèu) or simply Bordeaux, is a French professional Association football, football club based in the city of Bordeaux in Gironde (de ...

, rejoining former teammate Caneira in the latter (with the first and third clubs, he was often demoted to the reserves); he returned to Portugal for the 2004–05 season, joining

Gil Vicente FC Gil Vicente Futebol Clube (), commonly known as Gil Vicente, founded in 1924, is a Portuguese football club that plays in Barcelos. It competes in the Primeira Liga, the top division of football in the country, and it is named after the Portugues ...

. Costa joined Aris Thessaloniki F.C. from Greece in January 2006, with his new club starting the second division season in poor fashion but improving their game and results under Nikos Anastopoulos and eventually returning to the Superleague, with the player contributing with 13 games; the following campaign he scored a career-best seven goals, with Aris overachieving for a final fourth place as he formed a successful offensive partnership with Koke. In August 2007, Costa started a

Cypriot Cypriot (in older sources often "Cypriote") refers to someone or something of, from, or related to the country of Cyprus. * Cypriot people, or of Cypriot descent; this includes: **Armenian Cypriots **Greek Cypriots **Maronite Cypriots **Turkish C ...

adventure, as many Portuguese players in that timeframe years, by joining

Aris Limassol FC Aris Limassol (Greek: ''Άρης Λεμεσού'') is a Cypriot football club based in Limassol and one of the founder members of Cyprus Football Association. The club's colours are green, black and white, and their home is the Tsirion Stadium ...

. On 3 January 2008 he signed a three-and-a-half-year contract with another side in the country, Anorthosis Famagusta FC. On 28 December 2008, continuing in Cyprus, Costa signed a six-month contract with APOEL FC, but had it mutually rescinded on 13 March of the following year. In August 2009 he returned to Greece and penned a two-year deal with

Levadiakos FC Levadiakos Football Club ( el, ΠΑΕ Λεβαδειακός) is a Greek professional football club that plays in the Super League Greece. Based in Livadeia, Greece, the club was promoted to the Alpha Ethniki, forerunner of the Super League, af ...

, leaving the club in January 2010 and moving back to Cyprus, signing for one-and-a-half-years with

domestic cup A domestic cup (also known as association cup or national cup) is a type of sports tournament, particularly common in association football. This tournament type is notable for its participation by professional and amateur teams from many levels of ...

holders APOP Kinyras FC. Costa moved to Ermis Aradippou for

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

, but was released shortly after. He finished the season with another team in the country, former club Aris Limassol, netting four goals as they returned to the top flight after one year.

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Costa, Paulo 1979 births Living people People from Moita Portuguese footballers Association football midfielders Primeira Liga players Segunda Divisão players F.C. Alverca players FC Porto players FC Porto B players Gil Vicente F.C. players Serie A players Serie B players Reggina 1914 players Inter Milan players Venezia F.C. players Ligue 1 players FC Girondins de Bordeaux players Super League Greece players Football League (Greece) players Aris Thessaloniki F.C. players Levadiakos F.C. players Cypriot First Division players Cypriot Second Division players Aris Limassol FC players Anorthosis Famagusta F.C. players APOEL FC players APOP Kinyras FC players Ermis Aradippou FC players Portugal youth international footballers Portugal under-21 international footballers Portuguese expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Italy Expatriate footballers in France Expatriate footballers in Greece Expatriate footballers in Cyprus Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Italy Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in France Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Greece Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Cyprus Sportspeople from Setúbal District