Vítor Baptista da Costa (13 May 1920 – 2008), is a former Portuguese

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 ...

who played as a forward. He is most known for his short three–year spell at Benfica, where he scored 40 goals in 70 games, winning the

Taça de Portugal The Taça de Portugal (; "Cup of Portugal") is an annual association football competition and the premier knockout tournament in Portuguese football. For sponsorship reasons, it has been known as Taça de Portugal Placard since the 2015–16 sea ...

in 1948–49.

Career

Born in Macieira de Cambra, Vale de Cambra, Baptista started at Vale de Cambra SC, followed by Associação Desportiva Valecambrense and finally Sanjoanense. He joined Benfica in 1946, making his debut on 6 October against Oriental. Despite heavy competition from

Espírito Santo Espírito Santo (, , ; ) is a state in southeastern Brazil. Its capital is Vitória, and its largest city is Serra. With an extensive coastline, the state hosts some of the country's main ports, and its beaches are significant tourist attra ...

, Julinho and Rogério Pipi, he still finished the season with 33 appearances, scoring 24 goals in all competitions. His second

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and ...

was less prolific, as his playing time dropped, and he scored only 10 goals in 26 matches. In his third and final

year A year or annus is the orbital period of a planetary body, for example, the Earth, moving in its orbit around the Sun. Due to the Earth's axial tilt, the course of a year sees the passing of the seasons, marked by change in weather, the hou ...

at Benfica, he numbers dropped again to 11 games and six goals, but still help them win the

, in his only silverware there. In total, in the three years at Benfica, Baptista played 70 games and scored 40 goals. Afterwards, he returned to Sanjoanense to play for few more seasons, taking on management in lower levels clubs of his home-town in 1952.

Honours

;Benfica *

: 1948–49

References

General * Specific {{DEFAULTSORT:Baptista Da Costa, Vitor 1920 births 2008 deaths Portuguese footballers Association football forwards Primeira Liga players S.L. Benfica footballers Sportspeople from Aveiro District