Douglas Costa tells Robbie Slater about Neymar, Ronaldo, battles, Juventus and Bayern days, and a new life in the A-Leagues

Socceroos legend ROBBIE SLATER sits down with Sydney FC star recruit Douglas Costa to talk about his move to Sydney, and life in football playing at some of the biggest clubs in the world.

Socceroos legend Robbie Slater sits down with Sydney FC star recruit Douglas Costa to talk about his new life in Sydney and his football life playing at some of the biggest clubs in the world.

Robbie Slater: Why Sydney? Why the A-League? How did it all come about?

Douglas Costa: In this time of my life, I played around the world like for big clubs, and then I was trying to get some new challenge. And I knew that the A-League was going up.

A lot of good, good players come across here. They play for Bobo as well.

RS: And Juninho as well back in that time.

DC: Yeah Juninho as well. So at this time of my life, like, sounds good to be here and be close to my sister who has been living here about ten months as well. So it was a nice country and city and the weather is nice as well.

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Sydney FC signing Douglas Costa at CommBank Stadium ahead of the 2024 A-Leagues Sydney derby between Western Sydney Wanderers and Sydney FC. Picture: Richard Dobson

RS: Are you aware of the impact you’ve already had since you’re here? You’re such a big name in world football where you’ve been, where you’ve travelled, obviously playing for selection for Brazil. Are you ready for this impact that you’re going to have this season in the A-League?

DC: Of course. I’m more than ready. Like the guys here treat me, very well, make me welcome so yeah I’m super excited for the job… They’re so friendly. They give me a lot of confidence to play, so they respect me a lot and I respect that. So I think we’re going to fight together. We want to have a really good season. I hope so. So we work hard for that.

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA - SEPTEMBER 02: New Sydney FC signing Douglas Costa poses for a portrait during a Sydney FC A-League Media Opportunity at Hickson Road Reserve on September 02, 2024 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Brendon Thorne/Getty Images)

RS: When you look back at Bayern, Juventus, Shakhtar Donetsk, what was your most memorable club or did they all have special experiences?

BC: When I signed for Bayern of course, it was like a big step for me because I come from Shakhtar Donetsk, as you say, and then do like this kind of move to play for Pep Guardiola and yeah was a really big step so that’s my best moment.

RS: And Juve?

DC: For Juve it was a nice time as well. The most difficult time of my life was in Bayern. It was like a big step between Shakhtar. The most difficult time of my life was in Bayern.

Brazilian forward Douglas Costa during his time with Juventus. Picture: AFP

RS: What was it like working with Pep?

DS: I can talk about it for my whole life. I think he changed my life, he changed my mind, how I think about football. He gave me a lot of confidence. So I became who I am because of him. When I first arrived there, he just said to me are you ready to play football and I said yeah. When these kind of guys care about you, you get a lot of confidence to keep playing, to do your things.

RS: You’ve played with some amazing players and against. So I know it’s a difficult question because there’s so many but if you had to name the top five you played with, who would they be?

DC: Cristiano Ronaldo, Franck Ribery, Neymar. Thiago Alcantara and Paulo Dybala. They are friends of mine and they’re amazing players as well.

Brazil's Neymar and Douglas Costa at the 2018 World Cup. Picture: AFP

RS: Let’s bring it back now to the A-League and the opening game of the season. Have the players let you know that the biggest game for them and for Sydney FC is the Derby. Obviously, Juan Mata up against Douglas Costa is the headline and it’s first up, so do you realise how important this is to the fans?

DC: Yeah, it’s going to be a big game. I met Juan Mata a lot of times in Sydney.

We had a funny story because we go to the same inspection we’re looking for a house. When I later saw him I said we are going for the same house.

He’s now really become a friend because we speak Spanish as well so we know it’s going to be tough going for each other. A lot of expectation as well.

RS: You’ve obviously connected with him (Mata) now. How’s he feeling about his experience?

DC: Juan is like a world class player. I told him I didn’t have the luck to play with him but yeah, he’s an amazing player. I hope in this game he doesn’t play well, because I want to win.

Originally published as Douglas Costa tells Robbie Slater about Neymar, Ronaldo, battles, Juventus and Bayern days, and a new life in the A-Leagues