At Nest i spoke about this day with Chaneda and now i feel i would like to share with all of you. I know we have some europeans around and also some U.S. guys and girls interested in soccer.
So today one of the best portuguese players ever had is final match leaving forever professional soccer/football.
Rui Costa or Manuel Rui Costa (in italy) started playing professional at 9 years old for is beloved club, Sport Lisboa e Benfica (aka Benfica or SLB). He grew up with the club and starting showing up on portuguese national youngster teams. As High mark he won a junior world cup for Portugal in Saudi Arabia and was captain when Portugal won again the junior world cup in Lisbon (Luis Figo was also part of the team while not yet the big star he came to be).
By then he was already playing with Benfica´s senior team and the season after the second world cup he was given the number 10 shirt (playmaker) with which he lead the team to the portuguese championship and also made his first appearances on european club competition. It is said that Barcelona from Spain wanted to sign him instead of Luis Figo...or even both. Bad luck and a good heart prevented this jump in his career.
Benfica was going through a severe financial crisis and the club asked him to sign for the italian average club, Fiorentina from Florence. Aparently they were willing to pay more to Benfica. Rui Costa took the deal in order to help Benfica and went to an average italian club when he could have jumped straight into big european clubs.
This guy was always loyal to the club he was at and he stayed several years in Florence. He was several times considered the best playmaker in italian league, toping names as big as Zinedine Zidane (French star considered one of the best playmakers in history). Unfortunately to Rui Costa, he was to spend his best years underrated hiding in Florence and giving room to Figo on the portuguese national team (despite many consider that Rui Costa was always the true leader of the portuguese team and not Figo).
After several years at florence, fiorentina went banckrupt and finally, with the club no longer existing, Rui Costa had to move elsewhere....finally to the big lights! He was quickly signed by AC Milan and again took his number 10 shirt as playmaker. He enjoyed some sucess with Milan wining pretty much everything in 3 years finally giving way to the younger brasilian star KaKa.
In the meanwhile, Rui Costa was, together with Figo, the leader of the portuguese team in 1996, 2000 and 2004 euro cups, leaving the national team by the end of this last eurocup (together with his great friend Figo...despite Figo still did a comeback for worldcup 2006, Rui Costa stayed true to his word).
Feeling he was not good enough to keep being a star in italian league, he returned to his beloved Benfica where everything started. Again unlucky, Benfica did some of the worst seasons in it´s history despite of Rui Costa´s efforts.
He finally lead the team today to a nice 3-0 victory at home. He said goodbye to a stadium of more than 50.000 people...which is amazing considering Benfica is finishing on a disgraceful 4th place. As many said, we were there to say goodbye to our playmaker, not to see that sort of team playing.
Bellow you may find a farewell video made today which shows Rui Costa wearing the 10 with Benfica, Fiorentina, AC Milan and of course, Portugal.
Hope those of you who like the sport will enjoy this video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wHaDUX_k1Y
And this is how we say goodbye to those we love!
Adeus Maestro!
A luz estará sempre de pé para ti
So today one of the best portuguese players ever had is final match leaving forever professional soccer/football.
Rui Costa or Manuel Rui Costa (in italy) started playing professional at 9 years old for is beloved club, Sport Lisboa e Benfica (aka Benfica or SLB). He grew up with the club and starting showing up on portuguese national youngster teams. As High mark he won a junior world cup for Portugal in Saudi Arabia and was captain when Portugal won again the junior world cup in Lisbon (Luis Figo was also part of the team while not yet the big star he came to be).
By then he was already playing with Benfica´s senior team and the season after the second world cup he was given the number 10 shirt (playmaker) with which he lead the team to the portuguese championship and also made his first appearances on european club competition. It is said that Barcelona from Spain wanted to sign him instead of Luis Figo...or even both. Bad luck and a good heart prevented this jump in his career.
Benfica was going through a severe financial crisis and the club asked him to sign for the italian average club, Fiorentina from Florence. Aparently they were willing to pay more to Benfica. Rui Costa took the deal in order to help Benfica and went to an average italian club when he could have jumped straight into big european clubs.
This guy was always loyal to the club he was at and he stayed several years in Florence. He was several times considered the best playmaker in italian league, toping names as big as Zinedine Zidane (French star considered one of the best playmakers in history). Unfortunately to Rui Costa, he was to spend his best years underrated hiding in Florence and giving room to Figo on the portuguese national team (despite many consider that Rui Costa was always the true leader of the portuguese team and not Figo).
After several years at florence, fiorentina went banckrupt and finally, with the club no longer existing, Rui Costa had to move elsewhere....finally to the big lights! He was quickly signed by AC Milan and again took his number 10 shirt as playmaker. He enjoyed some sucess with Milan wining pretty much everything in 3 years finally giving way to the younger brasilian star KaKa.
In the meanwhile, Rui Costa was, together with Figo, the leader of the portuguese team in 1996, 2000 and 2004 euro cups, leaving the national team by the end of this last eurocup (together with his great friend Figo...despite Figo still did a comeback for worldcup 2006, Rui Costa stayed true to his word).
Feeling he was not good enough to keep being a star in italian league, he returned to his beloved Benfica where everything started. Again unlucky, Benfica did some of the worst seasons in it´s history despite of Rui Costa´s efforts.
He finally lead the team today to a nice 3-0 victory at home. He said goodbye to a stadium of more than 50.000 people...which is amazing considering Benfica is finishing on a disgraceful 4th place. As many said, we were there to say goodbye to our playmaker, not to see that sort of team playing.
Bellow you may find a farewell video made today which shows Rui Costa wearing the 10 with Benfica, Fiorentina, AC Milan and of course, Portugal.
Hope those of you who like the sport will enjoy this video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wHaDUX_k1Y
And this is how we say goodbye to those we love!
Adeus Maestro!
A luz estará sempre de pé para ti
