Through tears and memories: Jorge Costa remains at the heart of Olival

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Portal dos Dragões

·20 October 2025

Through tears and memories: Jorge Costa remains at the heart of Olival

In a context where the exchange of accusations between club presidents—who were supposed to belong to a new generation—has become common, it was moving to see the president of FC Porto, André Villas-Boas, turn a formal ceremony into an eminently personal moment.

The proposal was to name the Olival training center, where the Dragons have trained for over 20 years, after Jorge Costa on the date of his passing. The closest family members of the former player were present—Mrs. Maria Adelaide Estela, David, Guilherme, and Salvador—and perhaps because of this, the president of the Dragons began to choke up before finishing the speech he had prepared. He praised Jorge Costa both from a historical and institutional perspective, within the required formality.

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At the end, after reading for more than five minutes, he seemed to feel there was more to say, that the moment called for something beyond the written words. “If I can,” he began. Even watching on television, he captured my attention. He continued with a rare reflection, almost speaking to himself out loud, about what it meant to live with and lose Jorge Costa. He drew similarities between one of his sons and the ‘beast’, as he repeatedly called him, but a ‘beast’ that inspired tenderness. The hardest confession returned to August 5th, the day Jorge Costa passed away: “Sometimes I am overcome by different feelings, for having brought him back to this house, but also for having lost him here. And lost him the way it happened, in my arms…”

Jorge Costa was one of the pillars of FC Porto’s reconstruction after Pinto da Costa, having taken office just a few weeks after Villas-Boas won the elections. He is now present with the team in another, more symbolic way. The president emphasized that this “small gesture should have been made while he was alive and will never repay all that we owe him, the privilege of having had him with us.”

There is no doubt that having his name and image on the walls will strengthen the spirit of a team that has rebuilt itself and is experiencing a good moment under the guidance of Francesco Farioli. FC Porto has always known how to draw strength from apparent weaknesses.

It would be desirable for those in positions of responsibility to realize that episodes like this contribute more to the representation of clubs than other attitudes filled with bad energy. And Villas-Boas emerged from this moment marked by the power of the ‘beast’.

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

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Through tears and memories: Jorge Costa remains at the heart of Olival | OneFootball

Through tears and memories: Jorge Costa remains at the heart of Olival

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