Jose Mourinho has paid tribute to his Porto Champions League-winning captain Jorge Costa, who has died at the age of 53.
Reports in Portugal say the former centre-back, who was Porto’s director of football, suffered a heart attack at the club’s training ground.
“It’s part of my history that goes,” an emotional Mourinho said at Fenerbahce’s press conference ahead of their Champions League qualifier against Feyenoord in Rotterdam.
José Mourinho won in 2004 de Champions League met FC Porto. Jorge Costa was toen zijn aanvoerder. De voormalig profvoetballer overleed vandaag op 53-jarige leeftijd aan een hartstilstand. pic.twitter.com/rzSHknimIp
— Voetbalzone (@voetbalzonenl) August 5, 2025
“You have captains, you have leaders. It’s not about the armband, it’s about what you represent.
“Jorge was one of these guys I used to say ‘clean the garbage’ and let the coach do his job as a coach and not as a leader of the dressing room.
“That’s perfection for a coach when the captain does this work. Of course I’m very sad, but let’s forget football.
“Let’s focus on him, Jorge, a young guy and his kids that I met when they were really kids and now, of course, they are grown men.
“O meu coração é azul e será sempre azul” #E2ERNO pic.twitter.com/qcMFhGWPbJ
— FC Porto (@FCPorto) August 5, 2025
“Of course I am very sad but I’m here because if he could speak with me now he would tell me, ‘Come on, do your press conference and tomorrow play the game and win mister. Forget about me’.
“That would be Jorge. So that’s what I am going to try to do. Do my job today, do my job tomorrow, and then cry after.”
Costa was a senior Porto player for 15 years between 1990 and 2005 and made 324 appearances for the club.
As well as the Champions League, Costa won the UEFA Cup and eight Primeira Liga titles at Porto. He retired in 2006 after spending the final year of his career at Standard Liege in Belgium.
'He was a fantastic person who always got his point across. Everyone respected him because of his ability. He was a great lad.'
Alan Curbishley pays tribute to Jorge Costa ❤️#cafc
— Charlton Athletic FC (@CAFCofficial) August 5, 2025
Costa won 50 caps for Portugal and spent a season on loan at Charlton in the Premier League in 2001-02.
Porto posted on X: “Jorge Costa has left us. One of us, a leader, a captain, a role model. A symbol of FC Porto. Thank you for being FC Porto until the end. Goodbye, Jorge Costa.”
Former Charlton boss Alan Curbishley said: “He was a fantastic person who always got his point across.
“Everyone respected him because of his ability. He was a great lad.”
