Porto FC legend and former Mumbai City FC coach in the Indian Super League Jorge Costa passed away on Tuesday, aged 53, the club confirmed.
According to the reports, Costa suffered a heart attack and was rushed to the hospital on Tuesday morning after feeling unwell at the club’s Olival training complex. After being rushed to the hospital São João in a critical condition, his passing was declared.
Costa had 50 international appearances for Portugal, in addition to two brief stints at Charlton Athletic and Standard Liège, while also representing both Penafiel and Marítimo on loan early in his career.
A veteran of over 300 matches for Porto, Costa has won the Champions League under Jose Mourinho in 2004, in addition to one UEFA Cup and eight Portuguese leagues. In 2024, he had returned to Porto as the team’s technical director.
In 2020, he was also appointed as the head coach of Mumbai City FC. By then, he had already been at the helm of clubs like SC Braga Paços Ferreira, CFR Cluj, AEL Limassol and Anorthosis Famagusta, among others.
As per a Spanish media outlet Diario AS, “Costa began to feel unwell throughout Tuesday morning and, after losing consciousness, was treated there by the club’s doctors, who used a defibrillator until the national services arrived Medical Emergencies (INEM) to take him by ambulance to the hospital.”
The passing of Costa is the second tragic news for Portuguese football fans after the shocking death of Liverpool star Diego Jota in July.
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The 28-year-old Portuguese forward died in a crash near Zamora, in northwestern Spain. Jota and his 25-year-old brother, Andre Silva, who plays for Portugal’s second-division team Penafiel, were involved in the accident where their car fell off the road before both succumbed to fatal injuries.
The incident occurred a mere two weeks after Jota had married his long-term girlfriend, Rute Cardoso, in Porto. Jota, who joined Liverpool from Wolverhampton Wanderers in the summer of 2020, made 182 appearances for the club. He scored 65 goals and provided 26 assists for Liverpool, contributing to two Premier League titles.
