Cândido Alves Moreira da Costa (born 30 April 1981) is a Portuguese former 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 lea ...

who played as a

right winger In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. ...

right-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categories: centre-backs, full-backs, sweepers ...

. He achieved

Primeira Liga The Primeira Liga (), also known as Liga Portugal Betclic for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Portugal and the highest level of the Portuguese football league system. Organised and supervised by the Liga ...

totals of 162 games and four goals over ten seasons, representing in the competition Salgueiros,

Porto Porto (), also known in English language, English as Oporto, is the List of cities in Portugal, second largest city in Portugal, after Lisbon. It is the capital of the Porto District and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto c ...

Vitória de Setúbal Vitoria or Vitória may refer to: People * Francisco de Vitoria (c. 1483–1546), a Spanish Renaissance theologian * Alberto Vitoria (1956–2010), Spanish footballer * Rui Vitória (born 1970), Portuguese retired footballer * Sofia Vitória (bor ...

Braga Braga (; ) is a cities of Portugal, city and a Municipalities of Portugal, municipality, capital of the northwestern Portugal, Portuguese Braga (district), district of Braga and of the historical and cultural Minho Province. Braga Municipality ...

and

Belenenses Clube de Futebol Os Belenenses (), commonly known as Os Belenenses or simply Belenenses, is a Portuguese sports club best known for its football team. Founded in 1919, it is one of the oldest Portuguese sports clubs. It is based in the 19,856 ...

. He also played in England and Romania. Costa later worked in television.

Club career

Porto

Costa was born in

São João da Madeira São João da Madeira (), officially the City of S. João da Madeira (), is a city and a List of municipalities of Portugal, municipality in northwestern region of the Portugal, Portuguese Norte Region, Portugal, Norte region. It's part of the la ...

Aveiro District Aveiro District (, ) 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 Porto District to the north, ...

. Having finished his formative years at

S.L. Benfica (), commonly known as Benfica, is a professional football club based in Lisbon, Portugal, that competes in the Primeira Liga, the top flight of Portuguese football. Founded on 28 February 1904, as ''Sport Lisboa'', Benfica is one of the " ...

, he joined

FC Porto Futebol Clube do Porto, Order of Prince Henry, MHIH, Order of Merit (Portugal), 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 association footbal ...

following a brief stint with S.C. Salgueiros (where he made his

debut, in 1999–2000). In his first full season at Porto, 2000–01, he contributed 18 games and two goals, but the title was lost in the penultimate round to neighbours

Boavista FC Boavista Futebol Clube (), commonly known as Boavista, is a Portuguese professional sports club from the of Porto that competes in the Primeira Liga, the top flight of Portuguese football, at the Estádio do Bessa. It is one of the oldest clubs ...

. Costa was barely used in the 2002–03 title-winning side under

José Mourinho José Mário dos Santos Mourinho Félix (; born 26 January 1963) is a Portuguese professional Association football, football Manager (association football), manager and former player, who is currently the head coach of Süper Lig club Fenerba ...

, but played twice in the final win of the

UEFA Cup The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

, including the entirety of an inconsequential 2–0 away loss against

Polonia Warsaw Polonia Warsaw (, ), founded on 19 November 1911, is the oldest existing sports club in Warsaw, the capital of Poland, best known for its Association football, football and basketball teams. It also has track and field, Swimming (sport), swimm ...

in the second leg of the first round. At the start of 2003, Costa was loaned to

Vitória F.C. Vitória Futebol Clube (), popularly known as Vitória de Setúbal, is a Portuguese professional Association football, football club based in Setúbal that used to compete in the Primeira Liga, the top flight of Portuguese football league system ...

for the remainder of the season. In July, also on loan, he signed with

Football League First Division The Football League First Division was the top division of the Football League in England from 1888 until the end of the 1991–92 season, when its teams broke away to form the Premier League. From 1992 to 2004, the name First Division was g ...

club

Derby County Derby County Football Club () is a professional association football club in Derby, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second level of the English football league system. One of the 12 founder members of the English Football ...

for the 2003–04 campaign. He was

sent off In sports, an ejection (also known as dismissal, sending-off, disqualification, or early shower) is the removal of a participant from a contest due to a violation of the sport's rules. The exact violations that lead to an ejection vary depending ...

before

half-time In several team sports, matches are played in two halves. Half-time (also written halftime or half time) is the name given to the interval between the two halves of the match. Typically, after half-time, teams swap ends of the field of play in or ...

on 25 August for a foul on Richard Langley in a 4–1 defeat at

Cardiff City Cardiff City Football Club () is a professional association football club based in Cardiff, Wales. It currently competes in , the third tier of the English football league system in the 2025–26 season following relegation. Founded in 1899 a ...

; over 35 appearances, he scored once in a 1–1 draw away to

West Bromwich Albion West Bromwich Albion Football Club (), commonly known as West Brom or The Albion, is a professional association football club based in West Bromwich, West Midlands, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second level of the Englis ...

on 26 December.

Braga and Belenenses

Costa joined

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. Best known for the men's professional football team playing in the Primeira Liga, the top flight of Portuguese foo ...

in 2004–05, on a three-year contract with the option of two more. Having started his career as a winger, he agreed to a deal at

C.F. Os Belenenses Clube de Futebol Os Belenenses (), commonly known as Os Belenenses or simply Belenenses, is a Portuguese sports club best known for its football team. Founded in 1919, it is one of the oldest Portuguese sports clubs. It is based in the 19,856 ...

for the 2006–07 season, ultimately reconverting into the

position and becoming an undisputed starter for the

Lisbon Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...

-based team, scoring against F.C. Paços de Ferreira on 18 March 2007 in a 2–0 away win.

Later career

After only appearing in 11 matches in the 2009–10 season due to constant injuries, with Belenenses returning to the Segunda Liga, the 29-year-old Costa had his second abroad experience, signing with

Liga I Liga I (; ''First League''), also spelled as Liga 1 and officially known as SuperLiga for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Romania and the highest level of the Romanian football league system. Contested by 1 ...

side

FC Rapid București Fotbal Club Rapid 1923, commonly known as Rapid București () or simply as Rapid, is a Romanian professional association football, football club based in Bucharest, that competes in the Liga I. It was founded in 1923 by employees of the Grivi� ...

on a one-year deal with the option of one more. He returned to his country's second division at

F.C. Arouca Futebol Clube de Arouca () is a professional Association football, football club based in the Porto metropolitan area. Founded in 1951, the club plays in the Primeira Liga, holding home games at Estádio Municipal de Arouca, with a 5,600-seat capac ...

in July 2011, but suffered an

anterior cruciate ligament injury An anterior cruciate ligament injury occurs when the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is either stretched, partially torn, or completely torn. The most common injury is a complete tear. Symptoms include pain, an audible cracking sound during in ...

in his right knee days later, and was unused by the time of his one-year transfer to C.D. Tondela of the same league on 29 June 2012. In February 2013, Costa moved to

SC São João de Ver SC São João de Ver is a professional association football club based in the parish of São João de Ver, municipality of Santa Maria da Feira, Aveiro District, District of Aveiro Portugal. The team competes in Liga 3 (Portugal), Liga 3, the th ...

in the third tier; he reunited with

Ricardo Sousa Ricardo André de Pinho Sousa (born 11 January 1979) is a Portuguese professional association football, football Manager (association football), manager and former player who played as an attacking midfielder. He scored 47 goals in 154 matches i ...

, a former Porto teammate from his hometown. He joined amateurs A.D. Ovarense in July of the following year.

After football

After retiring, Costa was

sales manager Sales management is a business discipline which is focused on the practical application of sales techniques and the management of a firm's sales operations. It is an important business function as net sales, through the sale of products and ...

at OHM Técnica, a company based in Fiães (Santa Maria da Feira). During this timeframe, he occasionally acted as a

pundit A pundit is a person who offers opinion in an authoritative manner on a particular subject area (typically politics, the social sciences, technology or sport), usually through the mass media. The term pundit describes both women and men, altho ...

for

Televisão Independente TVI - initialism for Televisão Independente ("Independent Television") - is Portugal's fourth terrestrial television channel, launched in 1993. It was the most watched channel in Portugal from 2005 to 2019, and again in 2024. It competes direc ...

. Costa later became a

television personality Celebrity is a condition of fame and broad public recognition of a person or group due to the attention given to them by mass media. The word is also used to refer to famous individuals. A person may attain celebrity status by having great w ...

, with consistent appearances on channels such as Canal 11,

Porto Canal Porto Canal is a Portuguese pay television channel broadcasting from northern Portugal based in Matosinhos. Launched on 29 September 2006, it replaced former NTV (from Porto TV, based in Vila Nova de Gaia) which transformed into RTPN, Radiote ...

and

RTP1 RTP1 (''RTP um'') is a Portuguese free-to-air television channel owned and operated by state-owned public broadcaster Rádio e Televisão de Portugal (RTP). It is the company's flagship television channel, and is known for broadcasting mains ...

. In an interview to one of these shows, ''Alta Definição'', broadcast on 13 January 2024 by

Sociedade Independente de Comunicação SIC (acronym of full name Sociedade Independente de Comunicação) ("Independent Communication Society") is a Portuguese television network and media company, which runs several television channels. Their flagship channel is the eponymous SIC, th ...

, he recalled a period of his life when he was unemployed after he stopped playing football professionally, stating: "I realised that celebrating life and being happy is as much about playing in the Champions League in a match with 60,000 people as it is about being appointed delegate in an IEFP state-run job agency">Employment_agency.html" ;"title="ortuguese Employment agency">state-run job agencyclass."

Honours

Porto *

: 2002–03 *Taça de Portugal: 2000–01 Taça de Portugal, 2000–01, 2002–03 Taça de Portugal, 2002–03 *

: 2002–03 *

Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira The Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira (; English: Cândido de Oliveira Super Cup, or simply Portuguese Super Cup) is an annual Portuguese association football, football match played since 1979 between the winners of the top-tier league (Primeira L ...

runner-up:

2000 2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year. Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Costa, Candido 1981 births Living people 21st-century Portuguese sportsmen Portuguese men's footballers Footballers from São João da Madeira Men's association football fullbacks Men's association football wingers Primeira Liga players Liga Portugal 2 players Segunda Divisão players Campeonato de Portugal (league) players A.D. Sanjoanense players S.C. Salgueiros players FC Porto B players FC Porto players Vitória F.C. players S.C. Braga players C.F. Os Belenenses players F.C. Arouca players C.D. Tondela players SC São João de Ver players A.D. Ovarense players English Football League players Derby County F.C. players Liga I players FC Rapid București players UEFA Europa League–winning players Portugal men's youth international footballers Portugal men's under-21 international footballers Portuguese expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in England Expatriate men's footballers in Romania Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in England Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Romania