Adelaide City striker Anthony Costa is hoping for the perfect finish to the 2018 NPL season
ADELAIDE City goal machine Anthony Costa has an ideal vision of how Saturday’s NPL grand final will pan out when facing 2018 premier Campbelltown City at Hindmarsh on Saturday.
ADELAIDE City goal machine Anthony Costa has an ideal vision of how Saturday’s NPL grand final will play out when facing 2018 premier Campbelltown City at Hindmarsh on Saturday.
The 24-year-old said the perfect ending to the club’s 2018 season would be his older brother Joseph Costa, 26, supplying the vital assist for him to score the winner over a rival which has caused the three-time national soccer league champion so much pain over the past few years.
“You couldn’t write an ending like that to a season any better,’’ said Costa who is working as a sales representative after earning a commerce and marketing degree once he was cut from Adelaide United’s A-League squad under former coach Josep Gombau.
“It would be fantastic grand final if that was the case.”
Costa has played in two grand finals for City but is yet to record a championship win.
However since returning to his boyhood club Costa has proven to be the most lethal striker in SA’s NPL.
He has scored 80 goals in 110 matches and claimed the past two SA NPL golden boot rewards but was pipped this year by a solitary goal when MetroStars’ striker Christian Esposito scored 18 times.
The South Australian says he still has the hunger to becoming a professional soccer player again.
He hasn’t written his chances off after recently seeing a few “mature” NPL players win A-League contracts.
“I still have the ambition of playing professionally and that hasn’t changed and now it’s definitely time again,’’ Costa said.
“But I guess being a striker in Australia it’s difficult as an Australian.
“If you look at most of the A-League squads pretty much every team has their marquee player as a striker and he is a foreign player and that makes it difficult with limited opportunities with only 10 clubs to choose from.”
With Costa out to score a crucial goal or two on Saturday he has also been inspired by his brother Joseph’s resilience.
He returned to the game despite being dogged by injury issues following knee surgeries which cost him an Adelaide United contract extension when he was a teenager.
“He’s gone through a of hurdles throughout his soccer career,’’ Costa said.
“For him to still be playing and to have the passion and love for the game is also driving me.
“As a little brother he’s great to look up to.”