In the last championship match against Empoli Daniele De Rossi sent the Portuguese João Costa back onto the field, who he had played in Serie A in the final minutes of the matches against Bologna and Atalanta between April and May. He is one of those ‘children’ as Mourinho called them: more than 20 appearances in the Primavera and even a few minutes in the Europa League for a player on the rise who Mourinho liked but on whom De Rossi is also betting and who next year – if it were to stay – it could have more space. THE IDENTIKIT – The first to talk about Joao was the Special One himself. On the eve of the match against Milan Mourinho was counting the absentees: “Azmoun is out in front, Dybala is out. And there are two less”. Total emergency, which is why the Roma coach had drawn from the Primavera team: “João Costa will be called up”. Born in 2005, winger – he plays on the right with a left foot – who can also be an attacking midfielder or second striker, Brazilian with a Portuguese passport due to his mother’s origins. Caught in the Corinthians youth team, since he arrived in the capital he has fallen in love with the Giallorossi. If we exclude some shots with the Portugal Unders, on his Instagram profile there are all photos with the Roma shirt. Him including the one with the Italian Super Cup won at the beginning of the season. Curiosity: the agent is the brother of the former goalkeeper Doni.
JOAO COSTA’S DEBUT – Mourinho already made him his first team debut in the Europa League match against Slavia Prague last November. Often in the stands during Primavera matches, Mou was impressed by the talent of this boy who scored five goals and two assists in 23 games with Guidi’s team. Josè had spotted him and had already started training him in the first team a few months earlier, then his first call-up with Frosinone and his debut with Slavia. THE STORY OF JOAO COSTA-Those who know him well swear that he has something more than his peers, like when he played futsal at 6/7 years old. And that ball always remained attached to his foot. A talent who as a teenager, when he was at Palmeiras, risked stopping due to problems related to growth: first he remained smaller than his teammates, then he all grew up together and this brought him problems. At Corinthians he started to get going again, at 16 he arrived in Rome. And now he’s on the launch pad. @francGuerrieri
