Ruben Costa

Left Back - Vizela U18
11 Dec 2028
Monday
Process

Marked for Ruben Costa

55 Edition

The Vizela Herald

16 Aug 2027
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Ítalo damages knee ligaments — 63 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 63 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.

Player ratings

A brace, and Issa Doumbia takes the afternoon — 8.25

There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Issa Doumbia provided it, and the 8.25 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.

Squad

Issa Doumbia is a better footballer than he was

Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.

Squad

Tempers go at Vizela

Antonio Gomis was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Miguel Tavares

Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Boardroom

Graduation day at Vizela

5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.

Squad

Rafael Luís falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

Match

Issa Doumbia sends Vizela past Sporting CP B

It finished 2‑1, and it was Issa Doumbia’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Vizela.

The terraces

Vizela supporters have found a favourite in Issa Doumbia

There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Issa Doumbia has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.

In brief