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It wasn’t the easiest environment for a first English interview.
BEAVERTON — It wasn’t the easiest environment for a first English interview.
I met with David Da Costa after Timbers training on Tuesday, just hours before the team jumped on a plane bound for Salt Lake City and an eventual 0-0 draw. Da Costa is Portland’s first-year designated player — a 24-year-old from Portugal, brought in as the club’s counter to the departure of the dynamic Evander.
He speaks fluent Portuguese, French and Spanish, and his English has been improving since he first arrived here in February and told media, “I understand a little English,” before largely relying on a Spanish-speaking translator for the last three months. He’s scored two goals, assisted on four more and, while not as prolific as the player he replaced, has been a key cog on both sides of the ball for a Portland team that sits 10 points ahead of last year’s squad through 13 games.
“His work rate is unreal,” assistant coach Dave van den Bergh told me. “We knew that he liked to press because he loved to run forward and press high, but his work rate behind the ball and back working is unbelievable.”
Da Costa is soft-spoken and his coaches describe his personality as “cheeky.” And while he doesn’t seem to view himself as the star of the Portland Timbers, he is a player who is realistic about his position.
The Timbers paid $6 million to RC Lens in February for Da Costa to be a big part of the club’s future. He’s signed to a four-year deal, and even though he’s a very different player, he’ll always carry the label of being the one brought in to replace Evander.
There’s a story to be told there. And for the first time in Portland, he insisted on telling it in English.
And while there may have been a safety net – a translator – available in case anything was lost, Da Costa barely needed it, as he carefully and precisely talked about moving from Portugal to France as a nine-year-old, playing 13 years in the RC Lens system and finally deciding it was time for a change.
He was confident – even when Phil Neville cracked open a second-story window at the Timbers Training Facility and yelled “Rapido!” to remind the midfielder that they had a plane to catch.
With a wide smile, eyes that light up when he speaks, diamond earrings and a bucket of talent, Da Costa has everything to be the face of the Portland franchise. And part of that, like Diego Chara and Diego Valeri before him, comes with being able to communicate his story.
“This is a big step for him,” a Portland official told me.
Da Costa is familiar with big steps.
On the pitch, he advances the ball with quick, elongated strides that belie his 5-foot-6 frame. But he can also pull the ball back in when space disappears, with his knees firing vertically like pistons to navigate out of tight spots. Despite being from Almada, a city in Portugal south of Lisbon separated by the Tagus River, Da Costa prefers the play of Lionel Messi to countryman Cristiano Ronaldo.
He likes the creativity of his new league mate.
“I see Messi and it’s crazy,” Da Costa said. “Ronaldo, too, but they’re different players. Messi can score goals and Messi controls the game with his left foot. He’s amazing.”
Da Costa is right-footed, but it was with his left foot that he chipped a pass up to Santiago Moreno two weeks ago to assist on Portland’s best goal of the season.
I asked Van den Bergh if that was difficult to pull off.
“With your left foot when you’re a right-footed player? Maybe,” he said. “But he’s a DP. We expect him to make those types of passes.”
Da Costa has had that sort of technical ability since he started playing competitively in France. While Da Costa grew up in Portugal, his father lived away in the country working as a mason.
“When I was nine years old I remember I said to my mom, ‘Let’s move to France,’” said Da Costa, who is the fifth of six siblings. “And it’s good because I signed my first professional contract in France, and now I speak French better than Portuguese.”
Da Costa’s rise after the family settled in Northern France came quickly. Joining organized soccer for the first time, Da Costa flourished — despite saying he “always was the smallest on the pitch.”
“He messed up players who were three years older than him. He was very small, very slim, but he could dribble past everyone,” recalled Benjamin Bella, Da Costa’s first coach at SC Houplines, to French magazine So Foot in 2023. “During tournaments, coaches from other teams came to see me and told me that David’s presence was not normal. I had to show his license to prove that he was not older than the others. He was technically superior.”
Da Costa’s technical ability got him noticed by RC Lens, which added Da Costa to its academy program at the U12 level. In 2013, Da Costa was part of a Lens team that represented France at the Danone Nations Cup, where Lens was crowned world champions with a win over Brazil in penalties at Wembley Stadium.
Da Costa was awarded his championship medal on the podium by French soccer legend Zinedine Zidane and remembers joking that he was never going to wash his hair again after “Zizou” touched his head.
Next came steady progression up to Lens’ U14, U17 and U19 teams before signing his first professional contract with the club in January of 2019 as an 18-year-old.
“I’m very happy. It’s a big first step,” Da Costa said then. “The club saw the qualities in me.”
Da Costa did his best to prepare for Portland. Once discussions began between the player and the two clubs last winter, Da Costa said he watched a lot of film on the Timbers, talked to players and spent a fair amount of time on Instagram trying to learn about his potential new home.
He admitted he was a little nervous for the move.
“I was with one club my entire career — 12 years with my last club,” Da Costa said. “It’s a new city. New country. The MLS is different.
“But I thought it was time for me to move. I’m 24 years old. I need to experience another club with other players.”
Da Costa’s time as a pro with Lens had its ups and downs. He made his debut with the Ligue 1 first team in November of 2020, scored his first goal against Saint-Étienne in March of 2021 and was a regular fixture of manager Franck Haise’s lineup during 2022-23 — a year where Lens finished second to qualify for the Champions League.
The setbacks began in 2023-24, when a series of shoulder and leg injuries limited his availability and consistency. With Lens adding depth, and the departure of Haise — a coach who had championed Da Costa since his time with the reserve team — Da Costa made appearances in just 11 of Lens’ first 18 matches of 2024-25, falling out of favor with his only club, just as Portland came to grips with its departing star.
Thirteen games into his MLS career, Da Costa said nothing has topped the feeling of stepping onto the Providence Park pitch in the 45th minute of Portland’s season-opener against Vancouver.
His transfer had just been finalized days earlier, and much of his first week in Portland was spent waiting to learn if his green card would be approved in time for the opener.
He got the go just before the game, starting the match on the bench before coming in to begin the second half.
While the Timbers’ supporters were already subjected to rain, a two-goal deficit and a red card, they rose when Da Costa took the pitch — then continued to cheer every time he touched the ball.
“That was a very special moment for me,” Da Costa said.
Making his first start a week later against Austin, it was Da Costa’s free kick in the 89th minute that found its way into the back of the net, giving Portland a 1-0 lead and Da Costa his first goal in more than a year. In celebration, Da Costa ran toward the Timbers’ supporters and danced as his new coach, Phil Neville, pumped his fist on the sideline.
It was a notable moment for Da Costa — a big goal in a big win for a club that had been reeling from a 4-1 loss to Vancouver just a week earlier. And it was a notable moment for the Timbers, who didn’t need Da Costa to replace Evander, but needed him to show potential in certain areas required of quality designated players: leadership, production and wow factor.
“He never was a leader on any team, so this is all new to him, which is fine,” Van den Bergh said. “He’s a young player. It’s his first time abroad. He’s always lived at home, and so that comes with challenges. But he’s picked it up. He’s slowly but surely establishing himself as one of the leaders in the locker room and on the field. That takes time. But he’s everything and more than we hoped for when we signed him. He’s done really well for us.”
In Cincinnati, Evander has been spectacular. Coming off his third-place finish in the 2024 MVP race, the midfielder has scored seven goals with two assists in 11 matches. With deft passes and curling drives, his game has produced enough highlights to make an outsider wonder how a club could depart with such a talent.
Yet, even with Da Costa sitting on two goals, the Timbers are unquestionably better. Yes, they bolstered their backline and midfield with additions in the offseason, but there’s been something about exchanging the flashiness of Evander for the hustle of Da Costa that has unlocked the flow of a roster that features five players with multiple goals this season.
“Evander is a very good player,” Da Costa said. “But now it’s a new story, new players and I’m trying to do my job to help the team with their objective.
“I don’t feel pressure.”
I closed by asking Da Costa if there was anything people needed to know about him that I failed to cover in our conversation. He paused for a couple of seconds.
“I’m funny,” he said with a straight face. And since this is his story, we’ll let him end it there.
— Tyson Alger, The I-5 Corridor
