FC Porto mourns former president Pinto da Costa
Sunday, February 16, 2025
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Jorge Nuno Pinto da Costa, president of Porto for more than 40 years, has passed away aged 87.
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FC Porto and Portuguese football are mourning the death of Jorge Nuno Pinto da Costa, who was president of the Dragons between 1982 and 2024, leading the club to unprecedented success, lifting a total of 69 national and international football trophies during that period.
Pinto da Costa, who was 87, was first elected as Porto president in April 1982, and served for 42 years and 15 consecutive terms, for a total of 15.433 days as Porto president. The club won 23 of the 42 editions of the Portuguese Liga while he was President, breaking the dominance of Lisbon rivals Benfica and Sporting.
Continentally, Porto lifted the European Champions Cup in 1987 and the UEFA Champions League in 2004, the UEFA Cup in 2003 and the UEFA Europa League in 2011, the European/South American Cup in 1987 and 2004 and the European Super Cup in 1987.
Domestically, along with those 23 league titles - five of them won consecutively between 1994/95 and 1998/99, still a unique feat in Portuguese football – Pinto da Costa also oversaw 15 Portuguese Cup wins, 22 Super Cups and one League Cup.
Hundreds of Porto supporters gathered around Estádio do Dragão as soon as the news of the death of Pinto da Costa was confirmed. "An eternal inspiration. An Immortal legacy. Farewell, President of Presidents", the club wrote, with current president André Villas-Boas, who won the Europa League as Porto coach during Pinto da Costa's presidency and was his successor at the helm of the club, adding: "It is a huge loss for Porto. A person with whom we all learned to live and feel, in the most varied ways, what Porto means."
Newly elected Portuguese Football Federation (FPF) president Pedro Proença added: "From Antas [former Porto Stadium] to Dragão, from Vienna to Gelsenkirchen, from Seville to Tokyo, his achievements will be eternal, his legacy will be honoured, and his memory will be respected. We bid him farewell with gratitude. I remember the friendship, the teachings and the mutual respect over decades of working alongside each other in football."
