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Done dealUpdated 09:19 UK · 26 Aug

Samú Costa to Al Nassr
Postecoglou's defensive midfield fix

MallorcaMallorcaAl Nassr FCFee€24mReliability100%
The story so far
  1. 15 Aug
    Debut goal
    Costa came off the bench to score on his Al Nassr debut in a 3-0 win over Al-Fateh.
  2. 9 Aug
    Move announced
    Al Nassr announced Costa's signing on their official channels, confirming a four-year contract.

The move in full

Samú Costa has completed a permanent move from Mallorca to Al Nassr, where Ange Postecoglou wanted him to replace Marcelo Brozović in defensive midfield.

Al Nassr have completed the signing of Samú Costa from Mallorca, with the Saudi Pro League club announcing the deal on their official channels on Sunday 9 August. The Portugal international, who plays as a defensive midfielder, has signed a four-year contract. Reports in the Spanish press put the fee at around €22m, with Al Nassr said to have triggered a release clause in Costa's Mallorca contract. Mallorca have called it the biggest sale in the club's history, surpassing the fees they previously banked for Kang-in Lee and Vedat Muriqi. The move had reportedly been agreed in principle for weeks before it was made official, with Al Nassr needing sign-off from Saudi football's financial regulators before they could confirm it.

Costa was a specific request from head coach Ange Postecoglou, who wanted a defensive midfielder to replace Marcelo Brozović at the base of his team. Postecoglou likes to set his sides up in an aggressive 4-3-3, as he did at Celtic, Tottenham Hotspur and Nottingham Forest, and needed a combative midfielder who could also carry the ball forward. Costa fits that profile: a ball-winner who is comfortable both breaking up opposition attacks and driving play from deep. He is expected to anchor Al Nassr's midfield alongside Brazilian Angelo. The move also reunites him with Portugal team-mates Cristiano Ronaldo and João Félix, already at the club, giving Al Nassr a third Portuguese international in the squad.

For Mallorca, it is a significant loss on the pitch as well as a financial windfall. Costa had become one of the first names on the team sheet at Son Moix, starting 31 of Mallorca's 34 La Liga games last season and providing the kind of defensive graft — 65 tackles and 90 clearances across the campaign — that underpinned the side's midfield. Selling him for what the club describe as a record fee gives Mallorca funds to reinvest, part of a summer in which they have also sold Pablo Maffeo, Cyle Larin and Leo Román, but it removes a player who had become central to how they set up in the middle of the pitch.

Costa's stock had risen sharply over the past year. He added a career-high seven goals and two assists in La Liga last season on top of his usual defensive workload, a marked improvement in end product for a player previously known mainly for his ball-winning. That form helped earn him a place in Portugal's squad for the 2026 World Cup, where he featured as a substitute in the group stage, adding to the caps he had already won since his 2024 debut. It is that combination of defensive solidity and a growing goal threat from midfield that persuaded Al Nassr to spend big.

Costa has wasted little time making an impression in Saudi Arabia. He came off the bench on his Al Nassr debut, in a 3-0 win over Al-Fateh on the opening day of the season, and scored. With Postecoglou setting up an attacking system in front of him, Costa's job will be to win the ball back and keep it moving into areas for Ronaldo, Félix and the rest of the front line, much as he did for Mallorca last season.

What it does to the model

Al Nassr add a proven ball-winner with a growing goal threat in midfield, while Mallorca lose a player who started most of their games last season — both changes feed into how Bawler reads goals scored, chances created and chances conceded for each side once the new season's matches are actually played. Costa's early involvement, including a goal on his Al Nassr debut, will start to show up in that side's numbers, while Mallorca's midfield without him is one to watch over their opening fixtures.

How this is scored100%
  • Announced by the clubs100

A sourcing score, not a chance of completion: it grades how solid the reporting behind the move is. The stage and the evidence come from the sources listed below; the arithmetic is fixed in code, the same for every deal.

Sources

Related: Al Nassr FC team page · All transfersAl Nassr FC — every match prediction

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