Gold ticker tape rained down on Arsenal for the second time in eight months as captain Kim Little and vice-captain Leah Williamson lifted the inaugural FIFA Champions Cup gilded plate.

Following their Women’s Champions League triumph in May — continuing their record as the only English club to conquer Europe — they made history yet again on Sunday by beating Brazilian side Corinthians 3-2 in extra time and pocketing $2.3million (£1.7m) in prize money.

Little described the victory as a “different feeling” when asked how this intercontinental title compares to the Champions League. “It’s another trophy,” she told reporters after the win. “As players and a club, that is what we want to do.”

The Corinthians players were left disconsolate after losing a final with a real edge. “We wanted to give our fans their dream to be world champions,” head coach Lucas Piccinato said in her post-match press conference. “It was a magical moment for us. We will never forget playing the European champions in their own home.”

It is hard to assess what significance this new competition holds. Perhaps Arsenal season ticket holder Kevin Price put it best.

“It doesn’t compare to the Champions League trophy,” he told The Athletic outside the Emirates before kick-off. “A four-team competition, albeit champions of their respective continents, but you play two games and win a trophy. That’s not how most competitions work. Champions League — the best. This will be good for bragging rights. Best team in the world and all that.”

But the tournament was marred by last-minute organisational issues, a presenting partner with a conflict of interest and a winning side handed an overwhelming home advantage.

It was always going to be a challenge to attract fans to a midweek midday kick-off in Brentford, but FIFA had recruited hundreds of local school children in high-vis jackets to try to fill the 17,250-capacity Community Stadium for Wednesday’s first semi-final between Corinthians and Gotham FC.

As it was, the shrieking children met their match as the Corinthian supporters were the stars of the show, out-singing and outlasting the neutral crowd. England manager Sarina Wiegman watched on alongside FIFA’s chief football officer Jill Ellis.

Speaking to the media before the tournament, Ellis emphasised the importance of continuing to “elevate, grow and support the ecosystem” of women’s club football. FIFA sees the Champions Cup as a stepping stone towards the delayed 2028 Club World Cup, designed to grow global competitiveness and investment.

This intercontinental tournament can incentivise confederations to invest in the women’s game.

The winners’ cheque is the highest payout awarded in women’s club football, according to FIFA — although World Sevens Football (W7F), a new seven-a-side tournament introduced last year, awarded Bayern Munich $2.5m when they won in May. Arsenal’s players will receive a winning bonus, but the $2.3m they won represents 10 per cent of the women’s team’s overall revenue in the 2024-25 season, and is nearly six times what the Champions League winners earn ($398,000).

Such numbers are praiseworthy but could also distort competitive balance in domestic leagues. That is even more important in women’s football than in the men’s game, and the growing gaps between teams could threaten the long-term sustainability of women’s club football.

There had been a misguided assumption that the Champions Cup would culminate in a showdown between Arsenal and Gotham, the Women’s Super League (WSL) against the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL), but Corinthians captain Gabi Zanotti upset that party.

If there were any questions about what this tournament meant to her, she made it clear. “I have dedicated my whole life to reach this point,” she said, describing her decisive semi-final goal as “the most important” of her career.

The 40-year-old said the introduction of such competitions “took too long to happen”, and it was important to develop women’s football globally.

Most players shared Arsenal’s Olivia Smith’s view that it was an “honour” and a “great opportunity” for their club to play in such a tournament. She welcomed the addition of more tournaments like the Champions Cup, and insisted that any chance to win a trophy is significant.

There have, however, been large wrinkles in the process.

First, the tournament was played in January. For Gotham and Corinthians, this is usually their off-season, whereas Arsenal and Moroccan side AS FAR are in the middle of their campaigns. There is no perfect solution that suits all parties, given different leagues play at different times of the year. But the 2027 and 2029 editions of the Champions Cup will also take place in January, as will the 2028 Club World Cup, although the hosts of all editions are yet to be decided.

Arsenal head coach Renee Slegers said the schedule “works for us” and they have a deep enough squad to compete on all fronts, whereas her Gotham counterpart, Juan Amoros, said it was “challenging”. The NWSL side brought their usual season preparation three to four weeks ahead of schedule, travelling from the United States to Spain on January 2. This time last year, they would have only been having their first-team meetings at this point.

“We hit the ground running right after New Year’s in a way that is significantly earlier than any other NWSL team has ever started historically, including us last year,” Gotham general manager Yael Averbuch West told The Athleticbefore their 1-0 semi-final defeat. “This is not pre-season for us, this is an extension of the end of last season.”

Gotham took this competition seriously. They wanted to win another trophy and put their brand as well as the NWSL on the map. From that aspect, their defeat, in Amoros’ words, was “a missed opportunity”. But he said the club does not look for excuses, rather solutions.

“The more you win in the world of football, the more games you play,” said Amoros. “That is the club we want to be, the one that plays all the games.”

The same scheduling issue applied to Corinthians. Zanotti described preparation for such a tournament as “very demanding”. Their last domestic game was in mid-December. “We’ve only had two weeks to get ready to come here,” she said. “It’s not ideal.”

Spare a thought for the WSL, too, which would have been particularly frustrated that attention was being taken away from its heavyweight clash between Manchester City and Chelsea, a hugely influential game in the title race.

Other teething issues centred on organisation.

The introduction of the 2026 edition and its dates were only confirmed in March 2025. Since then, confirmations of venues, broadcasting and commercial partnerships have been very last-minute. A new competition needs a much longer runway to get it off the ground. Ellis acknowledged this.

Six weeks before the competition started, fans did not know where the games would be held. FIFA announced Brentford as host of the semi-finals and Arsenal for the third-place play-off and final as late as December 12. The attendance for the final was 25,031 fans, 7,210 for the third-placed match and 6,177 and 8,066 for the semi-finals.

The Price family’s main motivation to go was their unwavering support for Arsenal, but Kevin criticised the tournament’s marketing when asked why the crowd may not be as big as the game deserves. “I don’t think it’s been as well publicised,” he said. “It was sprung on everyone about six weeks ago. I don’t think anybody realised how important it was.”

Upon the announcement that the tournament would take place, FIFA said the semi-finals and final would be held at a neutral venue. North America was considered but FIFA decided upon Europe, a decision Ellis acknowledges was made late.

“We know Arsenal is such a pillar in terms of driving the game,” she told members of the media. “Dropping it in a neutral site just doesn’t make sense for where the women’s game is.”

A FIFA statement said: “Key factors such as visibility, player experience, climate, accessibility for global fans and teams, media infrastructure, and commercial potential were thoroughly evaluated.”

But the selection of the Emirates for the final gave Arsenal a significant advantage, not only playing at home but also avoiding the logistical challenges from travelling.

“It is what it is,” said Piccinato, who wants future editions to be held at a neutral venue. The Corinthians head coach also said his club had complained to FIFA after two Arsenal youth players were pictured watching Corinthians train at their base, which they shared with Arsenal’s academy. Slegers described the incident as “innocent” and “unfortunate”.

At one point, there were question marks over whether one of the semi-finals would take place. Morocco’s FAR were due to arrive in London on Saturday but they were delayed until Monday evening because of “administrative issues”, according to their press officer.

“We didn’t have the time to acclimatise and adapt, but we’re doing the best we can,” manager Mohamed Amine Alioua said, even if goalkeeper Hind Hasnaoui added, in all sincerity, that their preparation was “perfect” for Wednesday’s 6-0 semi-final defeat against Arsenal. Corinthians also had their own visa issues as Dayana Rodríguez, Gisela Robledo and Paola Garcia arrived on Tuesday, a week later than the rest of their team-mates.

A broadcast partner was not announced until two weeks before the final stage, when Sky and FIFA agreed to air the games in the UK and Ireland. CBS Sports in the U.S. picked up the final and third-placed game, announcing its coverage on Wednesday.

CazeTV, FIFA’s broadcast partner in Brazil, received around one million concurrent views of the final on its live stream. By comparison, it had a similar number for Brazil’s group-stage game against Panama in the 2023 World Cup.

VISA was announced as the global sponsor two days before the semi-finals while Kynisca, Michele Kang’s multi-club ownership organisation, was controversially named the presenting partner of the inaugural competition less than a week before the start date. That led to suggestions of a conflict of interest, as Kang owns WSL side London City Lionesses, NWSL outfit Washington Spirit and eight-time Champions League winners OL Lyonnes.

Even if those teams did not compete in this year’s edition, they could compete in future tournaments and at the 2028 Club World Cup. A financial link between an owner and a global tournament organised by the sport’s governing body is deeply problematic, and any seed of doubt that there is a perception of bias — however small — has now been irreversibly planted.

It was an unusual arrangement given people cannot buy a product but instead, the partnership indirectly boosts Kang’s own clubs’ brands and at the final, earned her a seat at the high table alongside FIFA president Gianni Infantino, FIFA’s chief of global football development Arsene Wenger and Ellis.

FIFA said it is “delighted” with the partnership and is “comfortable”, adding the arrangement was only for the 2026 edition, with Kynisca-associated clubs involved. “Kynisca’s support of this tournament reflects their wider commitment to transforming women’s football through unprecedented investment, while also advancing elite women’s club football,” it added via a statement.

Others will argue Kang has contributed more money to the women’s game than any other individual, and that her investment and ambition are needed. If Kang’s mission is to advance women’s football, as she has repeatedly stated, funding an event that could trigger more investment seems logical.

Considering how late the partnership was announced, had Kang not stepped in, the tournament may have been left without a presenting partner altogether. But while Kang’s intentions may be well-meaning, FIFA might have opened Pandora’s box.

The sport’s world governing body has invested significantly, paying for teams’ business-class flights, transport, accommodation, food, beverages and on-the-ground support. Amoros praised the tournament’s organisation as “fantastic”, adding that Gotham had everything they needed.

Proper investment in marketing the product is essential, however. FIFA ramped up paid marketing in the week leading up to the tournament and called upon former England international Jill Scott and Arsenal legend Ian Wright to encourage fans to buy tickets.

The tournament’s tagline, “a new era of women’s football”, did little to capture fans’ attention, nor did it add any sense of jeopardy. Just because something is happening does not mean people will turn up. The UK women’s football audience is not mature enough yet and FIFA leaned heavily on Arsenal’s fanbase. But it would also be understandable if Arsenal were cautious in how they advertised the final — they are also trying to push a pivotal home game in their league campaign against Manchester City on Sunday.

“It stimulates growth when you create competitions,” added Ellis. “We’ve got to start somewhere. Let’s be patient. We’re committed to growing this every year.”

Arsenal played the hand they were dealt — and won — but FIFA must learn from its mistakes.

This article originally appeared in The Athletic.

Arsenal, Gotham FC, NWSL, Sports Business, Women's Soccer

2026 The Athletic Media Company

On a cold Wednesday morning on the River Thames, where Brentford touches Kew Bridge, the clock ticks past 10:30 a.m., and the typical leafy riverside neighborhood in west London meets its visitors.

Joggers hug the Thames path. Geese and seagulls mudlark on the bank. Then suddenly, drums and flags fill the air. A mosaic of São Paulo soccer culture has arrived.

The plaza outside the old Victorian warehouse-turned-pub, One Over the Ait, is filling up with black-and-white-clad SC Corinthians Paulista fans from all over the world. It is still two hours before Corinthians kick off against NJ/NY Gotham FC in the inaugural FIFA Women’s Champions Cup semifinals at the Gtech Community Stadium, a short six-minute walk away.

The atmosphere is building as more fans congregate, pinning up their flags and banners, and joining in with the chorus of chants. Soon, a few hundred will march through the streets to the match.

Holding a 12-foot pole with the Corinthians flag at the top proudly flying high, Deborah, who lives in London but was born and raised in Brazil, says that around 400-500 Corinthians supporters are expected to be at the semifinal.

No matter the physical distance from Corinthians, the passion for the club endures. “We are born like this. We live Corinthians. Corinthians is our lifestyle. Corinthians is everything for us,” she said.

This is also not Corinthians’ first rodeo. As many fans in London were keen to share, at the 2012 men’s Club World Cup, they said more than 20,000 Corinthians traveled to Yokohama, Japan, to watch their 1-0 win over Chelsea in the final.

There is a small traveling contingent of Corinthians’ largest supporters group from São Paulo, Gaviões da Fiel, founded in 1969, but the vast majority of the group attending the Women’s Champions Cup are expats who have joined or created international chapters of Fiel.

“There are fans from Europe, London, São Paulo, Dublin, Porto and Lisbon in Portugal, some people from Malta, a lot of places,” Deborah said.

Deborah and her cohort showed off another enormous banner, printed for this particular crusade, that read “As Brabas in London” (The fierce ones in London). Brabas is a popular Brazilian slang word referring to empowered women.

A Corinthians fan since birth, over the last few years, Deborah has become a keen follower of the women’s team. On her hat is printed “Minas do Timão,” which translates loosely to a very local São Paulo slang word for “girls of the big team.” This is also the name of a popular fan-led media group that closely covers the Corinthians women’s team.

 

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Meanwhile, Joao, a Corinthians fan who travelled especially for the game that morning from Dublin, Ireland, had never attended a women’s match before and struggled to see the men’s team while living in Europe. He said he wasn’t going to miss his chance to support his team, no matter who adorned the crest.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s basketball or football, women’s or men’s, I’m a Corinthian supporter,” he said. “It’s so special for me because Corinthians coming to play in Europe is so hard (rare).”

Many of the faithful are like Joao. They have taken a vow to Corinthians many years ago but for the first time are taking to the streets and a stadium for the women’s team.

“I would fly miles and miles to support Corinthians. For me, it’s just a train ride away,” said Natalia, based in London. “I wouldn’t miss the chance to be here and support the girls, the very first Women’s Champions Cup. I’m here. I watched the men in Brazil two years ago. Watching the women, it’s my very first time.”

But there’s more than one supporter group represented at the inaugural women’s club competition. Camisas 12, which translates to the “shirts 12,” akin to the concept of a 12th player, is another Corinthians supporters group, founded in 1971, with members adorning custom white bomber jackets, complete with a small stitching of a young man and the number 12.

What are the differences between the two factions?

“We wear black, all black,” said Neto, from Dublin, referring to Gaviões da Fiel. “They wear white, sometimes white and black,” he said, referring to Camisas 12. “Both are crazy. They give their lives for this support.”

No matter the chapter, no matter the group, in London everything swells together like a great Brazilian monochromatic gumbo. As the banner for Fiel Londres read: “The favela is here.”

As more fans arrive, more banners are unfurled. Fiel Londres, Fiel Dublin, Fiel Drogheda, Fiel Porto, Fiel Lisbon, Fiel Malta and so on. Fiels’ banners are all on black fabric with white lettering in yin and yang harmony with the white banners and black lettering that reads, “Fiel Torcida Jovem Camisa 12.”

The march to the stadium gets underway and soon the stadium security team is helping stop traffic on the A4 so this black and white parade can begin its cacophonous trot to the concourse. The streets outside the stadium are filled with a chorus of “Eu Nunca Vou Te Abandonar” (I will never abandon you), as the fan groups stop and perform.

Inside the Gtech Community Stadium, section N125 is the designated Corinthians fans section. For anyone attending the match, it becomes the epicenter of the action. Two of the best teams in global women’s soccer may be on the pitch, but the phenomenon that is the traveling Corinthians quickly steals the show.

Just a few weeks into preseason, Gotham and Corinthians labor through a tense, low-quality semifinal. While the players on the pitch show plenty of rust, this patchwork tapestry of supporters groups, who are coalescing for the first time, appears orchestral.

There is unwavering support from the Corinthians fans. Steady drums, chants and adoration roll for 90 minutes. Certain big tackles, hopeful shots and fouls draw the odd reactive shriek, but this is a group that has come to sing for 90 minutes off the same hymn sheet.

The game is settled late in the second half, when Corinthians captain Gabi Zanotti produces the semifinal’s best bit of quality and spins the ball into the net. Pandemonium ensues in section N125.

“I can’t explain the feeling, this feeling inside. The love for this team,” said Deborah, when asked how she felt when Zanotti scored the only goal. “She (Zanotti) is amazing. She’s the best woman in football now.”

After the full-time whistle, Zanotti and her teammates paid homage to the hundreds of Corinthians fans. They celebrated among them, took selfies, sang songs, all while Zanotti stood on the advertising hoardings, arms stretched out, like some sort of prodigal conductor.

“It had to be her, she is our queen,” said Sabrina, a Brazilian living in Munich, Germany.

Twenty minutes after the final whistle and Corinthians players lingered on the pitch while the fans continued to sing songs and hurl praise at the heroes. Eventually, the masses began to disassemble and head back to the pub on the river to celebrate.

But not all. About 60 fans waited outside the stadium by the Corinthians’ team bus for over an hour to see the team depart after their historic victory. High-pitched cries and guttural roars began as each player walked on and waved to the crowd, some stopping for selfies and signatures. The loudest noise, of course, came for Zanotti.

One of the dedicated fans waiting was Nayara. She is one of the minority of fans who has not only traveled from São Paulo to see Corinthians but is also already invested in the women’s team.

While Nayara is not surprised to see such tremendous support for Corinthians, she was moved by just how many chapters turned up.

“It means a lot,” she said. “They are amazing, the most passionate fans in Brazil. Yes, the most passionate fans. We follow connections everywhere. We can’t explain. It’s like religion.”

While many expat Brazilians traveled in groups based on their respective supporters groups, some fans came alone and soon made friends with strangers who shared the same passion for Corinthians. Tainara, a Brazilian based in Canada, and Sabrina, a Brazilian living in Germany, met in section N125, in adjacent seats.

The two had many things in common. Both have been following Corinthians and the women’s team for many years. Neither felt they could miss the chance to be at the FIFA Women’s Champions Cup, even if it meant traveling thousands of miles alone.

“We’re always there. We’re always supporting the Corinthians. Doesn’t matter where or when, it’s even one of our chants,” said Tainara.

Now fast friends, Tainara and Sabrina are looking forward to spending the rest of the week exploring London and preparing for Sunday’s final against Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium. For Tainara, there is more than just pride and $2.3 million at stake for Corinthians.

“It would be proof of what’s happening in women’s football South America,” said Tainara. “It’s so important.” Brazil will have its moment to shine even more when it hosts the 2027 Women’s World Cup for the first time on the continent.

As the sun sets on the Thames, though, drums and songs fill the dimly lit rooms of One Over the Ait. The festivities feel like they could go on forever, but as evening turns to night, the crowd begins to dwindle for the first time.

The Fiels believe there will be thousands of Corinthians fans marching to the Emirates on Sunday. A 12:30 p.m. kick-off on a Wednesday versus a 6:00 p.m. kick-off on a Sunday would certainly give cause for that argument.

As the Women’s Champions Cup battles to establish its own identity and purpose, the Corinthians supporters have already shown how much fans and the power of soccer bring people together from all over the world.

This article originally appeared in The Athletic.

Gotham FC, Brazil, NWSL, Women's Soccer, Culture

2026 The Athletic Media Company

“It’s good when someone remembers that you could be Mourinho in a skirt, right?” says Helena Costa with a smile as she talks to The Athletic on the veranda of a plush Spanish hotel.

The nickname — coined in her and Mourinho’s homeland of Portugal more than a decade ago — is one piece of a globetrotting jigsaw puzzle constructed by a trailblazer.

Costa, 47, has broken new ground for women in states where their rights are restricted (Qatar and Iran), made a controversial principled stand, won a European trophy with Oliver Glasner and shattered glass ceilings at every turn.

Her latest first is becoming the only female sporting director in the men’s game worldwide.

Not that she gets carried away by these sorts of things.

“It has to mean something. But for me, it’s also natural,” she says. “I don’t think it has any impact in my life, but it’s important to open doors as well.”

She pauses before clarifying: “But it’s also a responsibility, because it has to work. Otherwise, it won’t open doors anyway.”

In the role for just over a year at Portuguese top-flight side Estoril, she is speaking in Malaga a day after an event run by TransferRoom, an online platform that facilitates transfer deals between clubs. Watching Costa mingle among 200 to 300 peers and take part in 15-minute ‘speed-dating’ style meetings could not be easier.

Why? Because she is very easy to spot, being one of only two women in the large conference suite.

She says being in her position is a “big step” and hopes to “have changed the mindset of people”, even though it shouldn’t need to be this way. “If you’re a teacher, it doesn’t matter if you’re a woman or a man, you have to be competent and good in what you do,” she says. “Happy, too.”

The Mourinho-in-a-skirt nickname arose when Costa became the first female coach of a men’s side, taking charge of French side Clermont Foot in 2014. “It was at a time when he was really successful,” she says. While crass and lazy, the moniker did at least have a link to reality at a time when her male counterpart was excelling.

Costa — who appears in a special transfers-themed episode of The Athletic FC Podcast — started her coaching journey at Benfica’s academy in the late 1990s, just before Mourinho took charge of the Lisbon club’s senior team for the first time (he rejoined them last September). Following a chance meeting between the pair at a pre-season friendly in 2005, she spent time analysing the academy setup at Chelsea during his first spell as manager there. He had opened doors, but she was the one having to prove herself.

The building blocks of her career came during more than a decade coaching in Benfica’s academy system, and at lower-league sides Cheleirense, Sociedade Uniao 1º Dezembro and Leixoes, where she also took her first steps in recruitment. In Scotland, where she took her UEFA A Licence (she has since reached UEFA Pro standard), she made a connection at Celtic, who took her on as one of the world’s first female scouts.

Via Qatar’s and Iran’s women’s teams, she was given the chance at French second-division side Clermont Foot. FIFA’s then president Sepp Blatter and Arsenal’s manager at the time Arsene Wenger commended a historic step, but it quickly turned into a nightmare.

Within six weeks, Costa had left, falling out with the club’s hierarchy about transfers. “I could have stayed, but I didn’t accept things that I think nobody would accept,” she recalls. “So that’s why I didn’t care if it had a world impact like it did.”

Having been installed as the first female coach of any male team in the top two divisions anywhere in Europe, the decision — which she calls a “moment of huge learning” — was as bold as the initial appointment.

“There was a crazy impact all over the world — Brazil, Mexico, China, Japan… I couldn’t have my phone near me,” Costa says. “But I showed my personality, because I wouldn’t accept things just because I have a top job. All coaches would have done the same.”

It was a win for those who had doubted the appointment in the first place.

“Maybe it closed some doors, leaving Clermont, but you have your principles,” she says. “This is what I believed, and if it was a man, he would do exactly the same thing.”

The quirk in the story is that Clermont appointed a female successor to Costa.

Corinne Diacre was in charge for three seasons before becoming France women’s head coach. Others have coached men’s teams at lower levels: former Italy international Carolina Morace (Viterbese, Italy), Imke Wubbenhorst (BV Cloppenburg and SportFreunde Lotte, Germany) and Hannah Dingley (Forest Green Rovers, England) are among a small cohort to have been given a chance.

Costa thinks there will be more.

“As a coach, that first impact is really important. They have expectations, they have doubts, but once you start working, it has to be natural,” she says. “People might look at you as a woman, but they have to judge how good you are. After, there is a natural acceptance.”

In Major League Soccer, only two women have ever held the general-manager role — a close equivalent at some of its franchises to that of a sporting director in Europe: Lynne Meterparel with San Jose Earthquakes in 1999 and Englishwoman Lucy Rushton — who had held analyst and recruitment roles at Watford, Reading and Atlanta United of MLS — with D.C. United in 2021 before moving into the women’s game the following year.

There are many women who work on the agency side of the game, such as Erling Haaland’s representative Rafaela Pimenta — who spoke about sexism in football boardrooms in this interview with The Athletic in 2025 — and Melissa Onana, sister of Aston Villa midfielder Amadou.

But others are following in the footsteps of Costa via scouting and recruitment roles at clubs.

Julia Arpizou manages the scouting department at Ligue 1 side Toulouse and Amy Woff is a senior positional analyst at Arsenal who completed UEFA’s elite scout programme.

Mariela Nisotaki’s role in helping identify and recruit Emiliano Buendia to Norwich City — a player later sold to Villa for £38million ($52m) — saw her rise from first-team scout to head of emerging talent, after roles at Swansea City and in Greece. She is now head of group talent acquisition for Southampton in England’s second-tier Championship.

“It’s great to have people that have made it,” Nisotaki says of Costa. “Helena was not afraid to go through different challenges, out of the comfort zone. This is what inspires me personally. She has done it very well and deserves to be where she is.”

UEFA’s sporting director programme launched in 2025, but only four of 35 participants were female and they all work in the women’s game. FIFA and the FA run similar courses. Costa hopes more people try and — importantly — are given opportunities, so she is not such an outlier.

Costa has done all this despite being told not to go into football by her parents. “It wasn’t something normal — it still isn’t,” she says. “They tried to change my mind and go in a different direction.”

Undeterred, she would go down the coaching rather than playing road, backed up by a PhD in sports science. It was only last year that her father accompanied her to a game for the first time.

“Everyone accepts it now from my family,” she says, conceding with a smile: “They are proud now, yes.”

Estoril are one of a handful of clubs — including Augsburg (Germany’s top-flight Bundesliga) and Beveren (Belgian second tier) — owned by U.S. businessman David Blitzer’s Global Football Holdings.

“You have to depend on someone who remembers you and believes in you,” Costa says of the opportunity. “It’s a consequence of all the other things I’ve done. Coaching opened the door, then scouting to chief scout, and chief scout to sporting director. This is a very small world.”

Sporting and technical director roles at clubs come in all shapes and sizes, but Costa’s is all-encompassing. “It can be a 24-7 job without any effort,” she says. Player trading comes naturally. And managing a “tight” budget. But that’s coupled with “developing young players, hiring the doctor, physiotherapist and managing the grass”.

She is now indirectly linked — thanks to Estoril’s multi-club structure — to someone with whom she enjoyed great success previously: Crystal Palace manager Glasner. Blitzer is still a minority shareholder in the south London club.

After Clermont, Costa — via a return to Celtic — worked with the Austrian at Eintracht Frankfurt. During the German club’s triumphant Europa League run of 2021-22, Costa helped out due to her Portuguese connections. Four of their six group games were against teams coached by compatriots of hers, Vitor Pereira (Fenerbahce of Turkey) and Pedro Martins (Greece’s Olympiacos). Frankfurt went unbeaten in those matches, winning two and drawing two.

“My involvement was helping out a little bit, translating press conferences, how they think,” she explains. “We created something that still exists. I keep in touch with him (Glasner) sometimes. It’s funny that it has happened.”

Like Estoril now and Frankfurt before, Costa has often found herself at clubs — and countries — that need to change direction.

She spent 18 months at Watford in the Championship as chief scout alongside Ben Manga, whom she followed from Frankfurt. Her arrival in 2022 followed the club’s relegation from the Premier League. She calls it “a really important time”, having to deal with “different personalities” and “economical situations” without parachute payments.

Coaching Qatar’s women’s team was “the hardest job of my life”, she says, “because of the culture“. Just after the Gulf state was awarded the men’s 2022 World Cup, Costa was charged with earning her team a place in the FIFA world rankings. “We had to build it and develop women’s football, but in a very short period of time,” she says of her appointment in 2010.

Primary schools and universities were scouted for talent, training sessions with girls from age eight upwards were organised, and parents were persuaded that their daughters should play, despite traditional restrictions in Qatar on girls and women taking part in football. Costa says: “I couldn’t photograph the girls or show what they were doing, or how fast they were learning.”

She was reunited with many of the young players she had helped at the opening game of that 2022 men’s tournament.

Costa has also kept in touch with those she went on to coach in Iran.

“People I was connected with had their homes affected with the bombs; it was a really sad day,” she says of U.S. air strikes in 2025.

Of the ‘women, life, freedom’ protests that began just before the World Cup in 2022, following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, Costa remains steadfastly supportive.

“They just want to have their own personality, their own freedom to choose their daily life,” she says. “They were expecting to have this revolution, and wishing to have freedom. So what’s happening (their protests against oppression) is really natural.”

This article originally appeared in The Athletic.

Watford, Premier League, Ligue 1, Sports Business, Championship, Women's Soccer

2026 The Athletic Media Company