Costa Ready For Wildcats Return

Portugal’s stunning Capital City of Lisbon is over 2,000 kilometres from Nottingham. Situated on the hilly banks of the Tagus River and along the Atlantic Coast, a world away, it perhaps feels to those many a Midlander still dreaming of sun and sea, put off by overseas holiday banning lockdowns and those in power telling us it’s not safe to fly… But despite the difficulties, distance and difference in cultures, there are some surprising links between the two cities from a sporting perspective especially.

Tiago Silva, perhaps the most famous recent ex-patriot of Lisbon is now donning his football education in Nottingham. The likes of Joao Carvalho, Yuri Ribeiro, Toby Figueiredo all now play for Nottingham Forest, although not born in Lisbon, have all come through either the Benfica or Sporting youth set ups. Some older Reds fans might even remember Hugo Porfirio during his short loan spell at the City Ground in 1999.

Simone Costa, is another Lisbon born athlete who currently plies her trade in our city and is just one of a few sporting stars that has made the journey to and from in recent times.

Costa as you are probably aware however is not a footballer, she represents Nottingham in another sport, for a team (unlike Forest) in the top tier of the National League, for a team that is revered as one of the best in the country, one that has enjoyed success on a National Level with back to back British Championships as recent as 2016 & 2017, one that is known famously in Basketball as the Nottingham Wildcats.

Simone joined The Wildcats twelve months ago, in the summer of 2019. Having just graduated from the University of Georgia in America, she has played internationally through the youth levels with Portugal whilst at Sport Alges Dafundo in the Portuguese Liga Feminina before appearing 64 times for Georgia Bulldogs in the NCAA. At Nottingham, last year Costa grew as the season went on and had the divisions best stats for average steals as well as comparing highly with the league’s best on 2 point scores and field goals, averaging 15.9 points per game in her 14 matches in the WBBL before the season was sadly cut short.

For Costa it was frustrating as she was just beginning to settle in Nottingham, now back in Portugal she is already looking forward to her return to her newly adopted city and back to basketball after a longer than expected layoff imposed due to Covid-19.

Ahead of the new season Costa told us “Currently, I’m in Portugal, I came home in March. Just got back on track with basketball and the gym, been trying to stay in shape. I will be back in September, but I do not know the exact date yet.”

When asked on how she had found her first year in Nottingham, playing in the WBBL Costa stated “I found the season quite challenging for me this year. I came in without competing for a whole season (before that) so it took me longer to adjust, but I grew a lot throughout the season and end up getting into a good place. The biggest difference for me was definitely the pace and play in a more free set (than America)”.

Costa got into basketball from an early age, born in Portugal to a Portuguese family she started playing for her school and for a local club whilst doing swimming and gymnastics before making the step up to elite level in her home country who she also represented at U16, U18 & U20 levels.

After travelling to America to take a degree in Communications Sciences along with a successful stint in the NCAA. Costa said “I got to England after I have been out for a year to finish my degree in the US. I found England an easy transition for me since the language was familiar and the WBBL was a good league to start with.”

On coming to Nottingham and in getting to know her team-mates over the last year, Costa stated “I have really liked Nottingham, a calm green city.” She said “Whenever I’m not in the city I come home to Lisbon. I usually workout, do some work on my computer, or just hang out with my friends.”

On those friends she’s found through the Wildcats team, Simone relayed “I could say our team has good chemistry we get along really well.”

Costa added her enjoyment of visiting various parts of Britain since she’s been a Wildcats player telling us “I went to Edinburgh last year and I thought it was so amazing, I definitely want to go to more places.”

With the delayed start to the new WBBL season leaving Costa stuck in her home town, not knowing when her sport will begin again, she has put her time to good use in running children’s basketball sessions telling us “I would like to give back to kids here in Portugal especially in my city. I am trying to run basketball sessions in summer, so the kids can improve their game. In the future, I would like to stay involved in the sports community.”

Ahead of the new campaign, if and when it does start, Costa’s immediate goals are most straight forward stating “My personal goals are always to grow as a player and help my team the best way I can.”

As a team Costa is confident that next season could be a good one for the Wildcats “Our goal this year is to bring everyone back healthy and get a good start, I believe we have the talent to make it to the playoffs.”