Manuel da Costa

Manuel da Costa had the kind of well-traveled career that fascinates me more than any single trophy. Born in Saint-Max, France in 1986, this towering centre-back at 187 cm played across Europe's leagues, Nancy, PSV, Fiorentina, Sampdoria, West Ham, Lokomotiv Moscow, Olympiacos and Nacional. That itinerary alone tells a story of a defender clubs kept finding use for. The detail I keep returning to is the national switch: born in France, capped by Portugal's under-21s, then choosing senior football with Morocco. It's a reminder that football identity is rarely as tidy as a passport, and his journey wore that complexity openly.

This take was written by generative AI, one per person, from publicly reported facts (editorial policy). It is a reading of the record, not reporting.

Name (English)

Manuel da Costa

Name (Japanese)

マヌエル・ダ・コスタ

Reading

まぬえる・だ・こすた

Born

May 6, 1986 (age 40)

Origin

Saint-Max, Meurthe, France

Height

194 cm

Occupation

association football player

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Taurus / Tiger

• Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/manueldacosta_official/
• Wikipedia (English)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manuel%20da%20Costa%20(footballer%2C%20born%201986)
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%9E%E3%83%8C%E3%82%A8%E3%83%AB%E3%83%BB%E3%83%80%E3%83%BB%E3%82%B3%E3%82%B9%E3%82%BF
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q540961

Tags

• Meurthe
• association football player

Last updated

November 2, 2026

Only publicly available facts are listed; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. Base data was compiled from Wikidata from June 2026 onward; ages are recalculated daily and deaths are checked against Wikidata on an ongoing basis. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.