Costa is 35 years old and hasn’t played for a top level team since 2023 when he left Juventus. Costa has a very impressive resume – Shakhtar Donetsk, Bayern Munich, Juventus. Titles in three countries. Over 20 major titles for those three clubs alone. 31 caps for Brazil. Those are some incredible statistics by anyone’s standards.
After leaving Juventus permanently in 2023, Costa first moved to Los Angeles Galaxy (after spending a previous season on-loan to Galaxy), before returning to Fluminense in Brazil. While at Fluminense, Costa won the Recopa Sudamericana – which is similar to the UEFA Super Cup.
Costa left Fluminense in the summer of 2024 to join Sydney FC in Australia. However, by September 2025 he was gone, and at roughly the same time a judge in Porto Alegre issued an arrest warrant for Costa, due to a large amount of overdue child support owed to one of his children (the amount owed is approximately $100,000).
Globo reported that the warrant remains valid for two years. Sydney FC decided to terminate Costa’s contract, citing “legal and personal issues” that would prevent Costa from returning to Australia. Costa was given two months to resolve his issues, however, he was unable to provide a timeline for resolution. As such, Sydney FC and Costa parted company. In the 25 matches Costa played for Sydney FC, he scored 6 times.
Douglas Costa – goal.com
Chievo had their best run as a club in Serie A in the early 2000s. Under coach Luigi Delneri, Chievo finished fifth in 2002, seventh the next year, and then fourth in 2006 (due to other teams losing points for cheating). Chievo dropped down to Serie B after another season and quickly returned to Serie A.
However, in 2018/19 Chievo finished dead-last in Serie A. For the next two seasons, Chievo played in Serie B. After failing to pay several years’ worth of back-taxes and subsequently losing multiple appeals, the club was relegated out of Serie B, eventually declared bankrupt, and the original Chievo ceased to exist.
Former Chievo captain Sergio Pellissier, along with new investors, formed a phoenix club at the bottom of the soccer pyramid – first as Chievo 2021, and later as FC Clivense, due to ongoing disputes with the original entity.
In May 2024, Pellissier and the Clivense investors purchased the name and branding of the original Chievo, at auction. Several weeks later the club officially changed its name to FC Chievo Verona and is recognized as the official continuation of the original Chievo.
Currently, the team is playing in Serie D (Group B) and are currently in fourth place, 8 points behind the top team. The group champion automatically advances to Serie C, while teams 2nd-5th advance through playoffs.
Pietro Laterza – chievoverona1929.it
Of interest – the President of Chievo is Pietro Laterza, who is also involved with Saudi Pro League team Al-Ittifaq.
“Bringing Douglas Costa to Chievo demonstrates our desire and dedication to continue moving forward,” said Laterza, after announcing the signing of Costa. “Not only does he bring prestige to our club, but to all of Serie D.”
On paper, a player of Costa’s caliber, appearing in Serie D seems absurd. However, Laterza has no illusions about Costa’s future plans. “We’ve gotten to know each other through Mario,” Laterza said of his conversation with Balotelli. “Mario told us Douglas wanted to contact us. I’ll always remember his goals for Juventus. He could have gone to clubs around the world, but he chose Italy. Our aim is to return to elite football. We expect to be in Serie B by 2029 – the club’s 100th anniversary. And I’m confident that Douglas can assist us in doing so in the upcoming months.”
Following his stint in Australia, Costa had no club to call his own and desperately needed to get back into action. A few days prior to signing with Chievo, Costa called Balotelli in Dubai. Balotelli introduced Costa to the Al-Ittifaq project. Costa immediately stated he loved the Al-Ittifaq project and was excited about the opportunity to revive the historic name of Chievo, which had fallen to the lowest of the low after bankruptcy. At 35, he is still pursuing challenges and never stopped working out. He was thrilled to be going back to Italy. It was Costa’s humility that caught my attention. Following Bayern and Juventus, he is willing to go down to Serie D – a crazy league with 162 teams that many provincial teams spend money to build a new generation of players. The agreement is simple: next season he will be at Al-Ittifaq.
