Tomás Alberto Costa (born 30 January 1985) is an Argentine 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

central midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

Club career

Rosario Central

Born in

Oliveros, Santa Fe Oliveros is a town in the . The municipality has 4,750 inhabitants and is classed as a ''comuna''. It is located in the Iriondo Department, 126 km south from Santa Fe, Argentina, the capital of the province. Oliveros is home to a large public ...

, Costa joined

Rosario Central Club Atlético Rosario Central (), more commonly referred to as Rosario Central, or simply Central, is a sports club based in Rosario, Argentina, that plays in the Argentine Primera División. The club was officially founded on 24 December 1889, ...

's youth ranks at the age of 18. He made his first-team and Primera División debut in a 1–0 win against

Estudiantes de La Plata ( lit. "La Plata Students"), simply referred to as Estudiantes de La Plata, is an Argentine professional sports club based in La Plata. The club's football team currently competes in the Primera División, where it has spent most of its histo ...

on 17 September 2006, taking the pitch in the 85th minute. His first start occurred on 1 October in a 1–1 home draw with

Godoy Cruz Antonio Tomba Club Deportivo Godoy Cruz Antonio Tomba is an Argentine sports club from Godoy Cruz, Mendoza. The club is best known for its Association football, football team, which plays in the Argentine Primera División, Primera División, the top level of ...

. After of the departure of

Néstor Gorosito Néstor Raúl Gorosito (born 14 May 1964) is an Argentine association football, football manager (association football), manager and former player who played as a midfielder. He is the manager of Alianza Lima. Playing career Néstor ''Pipo'' G ...

and the arrival of Carlos Ischia, Costa received more playing time. In the 2007 Clausura he scored his first goal for the side, in a 2–0 victory over

Gimnasia y Esgrima de Jujuy Club Atlético Gimnasia y Esgrima de Jujuy , (usually known as Gimnasia de Jujuy or just GEJ) is an Argentine sports club based in San Salvador de Jujuy, Jujuy Province. The club was founded in 1931 and is best known for its football team, whic ...

on 10 June.

Porto

On 14 May 2008, Costa was transferred to

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 ...

on a five-year contract for a reported fee of

€ The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists of a stylized letter E (or epsilon), crossed by t ...

3.2 million. He made his

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 ...

debut with his new club on 24 August, starting in a 2–0 home defeat of

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 ...

and playing 75 minutes. He appeared in all ten games in that season's

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...

, his first being a 3–1 home win over Fenerbahçe SK. On 3 May 2009, he scored his first goal for the Portuguese in a 3–0 victory at

C.S. Marítimo Club Sport Marítimo MH M (), commonly known as Marítimo or Marítimo da Madeira, is a Portuguese professional sports club based in the city of Funchal, on the island of Madeira. Established in 1910, Marítimo is best known for its football team ...

, and finished his debut campaign with 41 appearances in all competitions, including 22 minutes in the final of the

Portuguese Cup Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

, in an eventual

double Double, The Double or Dubble may refer to: Mathematics and computing * Multiplication by 2 * Double precision, a floating-point representation of numbers that is typically 64 bits in length * A double number of the form x+yj, where j^2=+1 * A ...

. On 31 August 2010, Costa joined

CFR Cluj Fotbal Club CFR 1907 Cluj, commonly known as CFR Cluj ( or ) or simply CFR, is a Romanian professional association football, football club based in the city of Cluj-Napoca, Cluj County, that competes in the Liga I. Founded as ''Kolozsvári Vasut ...

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

. After six

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 ...

and two Champions League appearances he was recalled by Porto but, in the following

transfer window In association football, a transfer window is the period during the year in which a football club, club can add players to their squad who were previously under contract with another club. Such a Transfer (association football), transfer is comp ...

, moved to

Club Deportivo Universidad Católica Club Deportivo Universidad Católica, known as Universidad Católica, is a professional association football, football club based in Santiago, Chile. Founded in 1937 they play in the Chilean Primera División, Primera División, the top flight o ...

in Chile as a replacement for

Al Ain FC Al Ain Football Club (; Arabic transliteration, transliterated: Nady al-'Ayn) is a professional Football team, football club based in the city of Al Ain, Abu Dhabi (emirate), Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. It is one of many sport sections of ...

-bound Milovan Mirošević, being officially presented on 25 January after agreeing to a six-month loan. Costa made his official debut against

Unión La Calera Unión La Calera is a Chilean football club based in La Calera, Chile. The club competes in the Primera División de Chile. It was founded as Club de Deportes La Calera on 26 January 1954, after the merger of three teams from the city: ''Condor' ...

in a 2–1 Primera División defeat at the Estadio Municipal Nicolás Chahuán Nazar on 12 February 2011, starting the match as

right back In the sport of association football, a defender is an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categ ...

and being replaced by Santiago Dittborn. On 3 March, he scored a vital long-range goal to help UC to a 4–3 away win against

Club Atlético Vélez Sarsfield Club Atlético Vélez Sarsfield () is an Argentine sports club based in Liniers, Buenos Aires. Its football team plays in Argentine Primera División, Primera División, the highest level of the Argentine football league system, Argentine league ...

in the second stage of the

Copa Libertadores The CONMEBOL Libertadores, also known as Copa Libertadores de América (), is an annual continental club football competition organized by CONMEBOL since 1960. It is the highest level of competition in South American club football. The tournam ...

, the club's first ever away win against an

Argentine Argentines, Argentinians or Argentineans are people from Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical, or cultural. For most Argentines, several (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their ...

team in the competition. On 23 April 2011, Costa netted his first league goal for Universidad Católica after a notable

free kick A free kick is an action used in several codes of football to restart play with the kicking of a ball into the field of play. Association football In association football, the free kick is a method of restarting the game following an offe ...

against

Cobresal Club de Deportes Cobresal, or simply Cobresal, is a Chilean football club based in El Salvador, Atacama, a Chilean mining camp, and participates in Campeonato Nacional. The team was founded on 5 May 1979, and the name of the club comes from the ...

in a 5–3 win; his solid performances overall made him a regular starter in the

Juan Antonio Pizzi Juan Antonio Pizzi Torroja (, ; born 7 June 1968) is a retired professional footballer who played as a striker. He is currently the head coach of the Kuwait national team. Pizzi spent the bulk of his club career in Spain, mainly at Tenerife, ...

-led side, which qualified to the

2011 Copa Sudamericana The 2011 Copa Sudamericana de Clubes (officially the 2011 Copa Bridgestone Sudamericana de Clubes for sponsorship reasons) was the 10th edition of the Copa Sudamericana, South America's secondary international club football tournament organized ...

. In the national championship playoffs finals against

Club Universidad de Chile Club Universidad de Chile () is a professional Association football, football club based in Santiago, Chile, that plays in the Chilean Primera División, Primera División. Founded on 24 May 1927, Universidad de Chile is one of the most success ...

, he scored in the first leg in a 2–0 home victory but 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 ...

in the decider (4–1 loss). Costa returned to Argentina in July 2011, joining

Club Atlético Colón Club Atlético Colón de Santa Fe (), commonly referred to as Colón de Santa Fe , is a sports club from Santa Fe, Argentina. The football team plays in the second Division of the Argentine football league system, the Primera Nacional. It was ...

again on loan.

Universidad Católica

On 6 July 2012, Costa moved back to both Chile and Universidad. He was voted best player in the country at the end of the first season in his second spell.

Peñarol

In January 2016, Costa signed with

Peñarol Club Atlético Peñarol (), more commonly referred to as Peñarol, is a Uruguayan professional football club based in Montevideo. The club currently competes in the Uruguayan Primera División, the highest tier in Uruguayan football. The nam ...

in the

Uruguayan Primera División The Liga Profesional de Primera División (American Spanish , , local: , ''First Division''), named "Torneo Uruguayo Copa Coca-Cola" for sponsorship reasons, is the highest professional Association football, football league in Uruguay organized b ...

. On 10 April of the following year, after only 24 competitive appearances, he left.

Later years

Costa joined

Club Olimpo Club Olimpo, usually referred to as Olimpo de Bahía Blanca, is an Argentine sports club based in the city of Bahía Blanca, Buenos Aires Province. The club was founded October 15th, 1910. Its primary activity is soccer. The club is recognized in ...

on 19 August 2017, agreeing to a one-year contract. He moved abroad shortly after, however, signing a similar deal with

Club Alianza Lima Club Alianza Lima, more commonly known as simply Alianza Lima, is a Peru, Peruvian professional sports club based in La Victoria District, Lima, La Victoria District of Lima, Peru. The club was founded under the name of Sport Alianza on February ...

in the

Peruvian Primera División The Peru First Division (; known simply as ''First Division'', and Liga 1 Te Apuesto for sponsorship reasons), officially known as Liga 1, is the top flight of association football in Peru. It has been referred to as Torneo Descentralizado since ...

Honours

Porto *

: 2008–09 *

Taça de Portugal The Taça de 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 Generali Tranquilidade since the 2024–25 seaso ...

: 2008–09, 2009–10 *

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 ...

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

Peñarol *

: 2015–16

References

External links

* * *
Irish Times profile
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Costa, Tomas 1985 births Living people 21st-century Argentine sportsmen Argentine men's footballers Footballers from Rosario, Santa Fe Men's association football midfielders Argentine Primera División players Rosario Central footballers Club Atlético Colón footballers Primeira Liga players FC Porto players Liga I players CFR Cluj players Chilean Primera División players Club Deportivo Universidad Católica footballers Uruguayan Primera División players Peñarol players Peruvian Primera División players Club Alianza Lima footballers Argentine expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Portugal Expatriate men's footballers in Romania Expatriate men's footballers in Chile Expatriate men's footballers in Uruguay Expatriate men's footballers in Peru Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Portugal Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Romania Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Chile Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Uruguay Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Peru