Diogo Costa – Skills of the Portuguese Goalkeeper

Diogo Costa – Skills of the Portuguese Goalkeeper

Diogo Meireles da Costa ComM (Portuguese pronunciation: [diˈoɣuˈkɔʃtɐ]; born 19 September 1999) is a professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Primeira Liga club Porto and the Portugal national team.

Coming through Porto’s youth system, Costa won the UEFA Youth League in 2019. He was promoted from the reserve side to the first-team in 2019, winning a domestic double of the Primeira Liga and the Taça de Portugal in his first season. He broke into the starting line-up in 2021, aged 22, helping Porto to a second domestic double and being named in the Primeira Liga Team of the Year.

Born in Switzerland to parents from Portugal, Costa represented Portugal at various youth levels, being part of the under-17 team that won the 2016 European Championship, the under-19 team that won the 2018 European Championship and the under-21 team that finished as runners-up at the 2021 European Championship. He made his senior international debut in 2021, representing Portugal at the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

2021–Present: First-choice goalkeeper and domestic double
At the start of the 2021–22 season, Costa had a run as first-choice goalkeeper when Marchesín was sidelined with an injury. He was September 2021’s Goalkeeper of the Month, receiving 25% of the votes while Benfica’s Odysseas Vlachodimos received 22%. On 16 October, he agreed to a contract extension to 2026, increasing his buyout clause from €30 million to €60 million. After helping Porto to an unbeaten run of sixteen consecutive league games, during which he kept eight clean sheets, he was named the league’s Goalkeeper of the Month for four consecutive months from December to March 2022.

He would then be part of five more victories that would seal Porto a second domestic double of the Primeira Liga and the Taça de Portugal, after keeping a clean sheet in the 1–0 victory of O Clássico against rivals Benfica. Despite finishing the season with 15 clean sheets, the second-highest total behind Antonio Adán of Sporting CP, Costa was still named in the Primeira Liga Team of the Year ahead of them.

On 12 October 2022, Costa managed to provide an assist to a goal from Galeno, then saved a penalty from Kerem Demirbay, and preserved a clean sheet in a 3–0 away win over Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League, becoming the first goalkeeper to achieve that feat. On 26 October, Costa managed to save two consecutive penalties from Hans Vanaken and Noa Lang, becoming the first goalkeeper to save three consecutive penalties in the competition’s history. His form throughout the club’s Champions League group stage campaign, saw him help his side qualify to the round of sixteen, as group winners, following a 2–1 home win over Atlético Madrid on 1 November, amassing 43 saves, and a man of the Match award, during the group stages.

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