Diogo Costa hits 250 games for FC Porto against FC Arouca | OneFootball

The match against FC Arouca, corresponding to the third round of Liga Portugal 2026/27, marked Diogo Costa’s 250th appearance for FC Porto. At 26, the Dragons’ and Portugal national team goalkeeper reached a significant milestone, joining the select group of players who, at senior level, have worn the blue-and-white shirt in at least 250 matches.

In his first 250 matches for the club’s first team, Diogo Costa recorded 112 clean sheets, 173 wins, 37 draws and 40 defeats. Along the way, he won three national league titles, three Portuguese Cups and three Cândido de Oliveira Super Cups.

Last season, the Dragons achieved the second-highest points tally in their history, with 88 points, while Diogo Costa conceded only 15 goals in the league and finished 21 of the 33 rounds played without being beaten. In 2025/26, with the number 99 on his back, FC Porto was the team with the most clean sheets among the 12 major leagues.

This season, the goalkeeper started all four official matches and kept clean sheets against SCU Torreense (1-0), FC Alverca (2-0), Rio Ave (0-2) and FC Arouca (2-0).

His effectiveness in saving penalties is another standout feature of Diogo Costa’s career. Since taking over in FC Porto’s goal, the Portugal international has faced 31 penalties and saved nine, against CD Nacional (two), Gil Vicente, Bayer Leverkusen (two), Club Brugge, Vitória SC, FC Famalicão and Sporting.

Born in Switzerland and developed through FC Porto’s youth system, Diogo Costa won the national Under-19 championship in 2015/16. With Portugal, he was crowned European champion at Under-17 level in 2016 and Under-19 level in 2018, and also won the UEFA Youth League in 2018/19. His professional debut came in August 2017, in the Second League, while his first match for FC Porto’s first team was played at the Estádio do Dragão in September 2019.

Since then, Diogo Costa has collected four annual awards and 15 monthly Liga Portugal Best Goalkeeper awards. In addition, he was included in the competition’s Team of the Year in four of the last five seasons: 2021/22, 2022/23, 2024/25 and 2025/26. In 2024, he was among the nominees selected by France Football for the Yashin Trophy, awarded to the best goalkeeper in the world.

João Pinto, with 587 matches, still leads by a wide margin the list of footballers with the most appearances for FC Porto. As for goalkeepers, Vítor Baía (567), Helton (334), Barrigana (297) and Américo (257) still have more matches than Diogo Costa, who now has 250.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇵🇹 here.