Ignoring the speculation about our Senegal defender there's obviously no way that the return of one of our best-loved players to the Valley today can be ignored. Welcome back Jorge.
There was something about Jorge Costa that we all liked. He arrived on a loan deal for half-a-season and played his first full game against Spurs on 8th Dec 2001 in a Fish-Costa-Fortune back line. We won 3-1 with goals by Stuart and Lisbie (2) and I can even remember Lisbie's goals. A total of twenty four games was all he played for the Addicks, just a couple fewer than Diawara but there's no prizes for guessing what one of the two was the fans favorite.
He came because he was out of the Porto squad and needed to play, and be seen, because of the upcoming 2002 World Cup in Korea and Japan and we all knew that was the bargain. Six months and then he'd be off. He'd had a disagreement with the Porto coach Octavio Machado and left in a bit of a rush. He was obviously a firm favorite with the Oporto fans as well as his departure for 6 months meant the end for Machado and the arrival of one Jose Mourinho.
After leaving the Addicks he returned to Oporto and went on to captain the team and after winning the Portuguese Championship in 2002/03, they then went on to win the Champions League in 2003/04.
Chrissie Powell has a few comments to make over on the official site, not least of which was the fans behaviour after the end-of-season game at Manure game in May.
But why did we like him? Chris hits it on the head. He always gave 10 of 10 and this explains why so many people also appreciated our lately departed Kish.
My own special memory of him dates to 13th feb 2002 when sitting in my father-in-laws house in Madrid watching Spain v Portugal and the unbelievable happens.
An outswinging corner in the 28th minute and who should rise about everybody and head home a goal to put the Portuguese in front - Jorge Costa. Sorry, Emilio, but watching a Charlton player, even one on-loan, represent his country surpasses most things and my excitement at the goal was unrestrained. Needless to say, Emilio, my Spanish father-in-law failed to understand the feeling even though the game finished 1-1.
No comments:
Post a Comment