Lucas Ribeiro Costa will complete two years of his time playing in South Africa having reaped benefits which would have been nearer to being impossible if he had stayed in Europe.
Ribeiro Costa is in his second season at Sundowns, where he has already delivered 58 goal contributions in 84 appearances.
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The Brazilian’s input has come at an average of a goal/assist with every 109 minutes that he has played while at Chloorkop.
This season, he is on 20 goals plus 13 assists in all competitions, improving on the 16 goals and nine assists from his first season.
He has been a league champion for both his years at Sundowns, added the African Football League, and now has the CAF Champions League standing one match away.
His runners-up medals have included the MTN8, Carling Knockout Cup, Nedbank Cup.
The subsequent result to all this has been that his value has maintained its rise from what it was when he joined the Tshwane giants.
Costa has arrived at Chloorkop thin on top-flight football experience after six years playing in Europe, starting out in the reserve team of then French Second Division club Valenciennes in July 2017.
While in France, he was then promoted to the senior team the following year but found little joy in earning minutes in Ligue 2.
After two years at Valenciennes, Costa went across the border to Belgium, where he found home at Royal Excelsior Virton in the second-tier league, before stints at Chaleroi SC, RWD Molenbeek, Royal Excel Mouscron, and SK Beveren.
He played 98 minutes in the Belgian top league while at Chaleroi during the first half of the 2020/21 season, prior to moving to the Second Division on loan at RWD Molenbeek.
The Belgian Second Division is where Ribeiro played the bulk of his football in Europe, restricting his transfer value to within reach for Brazil.
According to Transfermarkt, from having his value placed at 600 000 Euro (approx. R12,1 million), he is now at 2,5 million Euro (approx. R50,5 million) and rising.
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This makes him the most expensive player in the Betway Premiership and set to move further up if Sundowns win the Champions League and fare well at the FIFA Club World Cup.
His fellow countryman Freitas Camilo has told this website that Brazilians are anticipating watching Ribeiro Costa at the tournament in USA from June 14 to July 13.
