Pinto da Costa confirms total courtship with his son Alexandre and Joana takes her brother’s place, assuming herself as the natural heir – The Mag

At 86 years of age, and when he thought he was safe from new family troubles, Pinto da Costa severed relations with his eldest son, Alexandre, fruit of his first marriage to Manuela Carmona. As ‘The Mag’ had already reported, first hand, the president of the Dragons stopped speaking to the businessman more than half a year ago and, if there were any doubts about the climate of tension between father and son, recent events served to dissipate them.

After excluding his 59-year-old son from the event that served to mark his re-application for FC Porto, about a month ago, at the Coliseu, Pinto da Costa once again left Alexandre out of the most important moments of his life. Last week, he brought the entire clan together for the release of the documentary that traces his journey, for Prime Video, and Alexandre was the only one who was not included in the family picture.

“The anger is as serious as that of the past”, explains a source, recalling the famous discord between father and son, which lasted more than ten years. The two had made peace in 2011 and, since then, everything seemed to be going well, but business related to the club and money-related issues would end up pushing them apart again and, now, the closest fear that the anger will be total and definitive. “They were upset about business and money. And there is no solution in sight”adds the source.

Relations are tense! Son excluded from important moment in Pinto da Costa’s life

Despite the breakup, Pinto da Costa continues to maintain an excellent relationship with his eldest grandson, Nuno. His grandchildren – he was a grandfather twice more in recent years, alongside his daughter Joana – are, in fact, the light in the eyes of the president of the dragons who, at this stage of his life, appears to be a more present grandfather than ever. At the launch of the documentary entitled ‘Senhor Presidente’, the Porto leader appeared alongside his granddaughters, Maria and Jasmin. The oldest appears, in fact, in one of the first scenes of the documentary, with Pinto da Costa revealing a more familiar side and addressing the girl with a tender tone of voice.

“There is no doubt that his granddaughters softened him”, reveals the same source, adding that the blue and white president is a grandfather “present and proud.”

It’s the other side of the coin of Pinto da Costa’s family life. If the last year has brought him a break in relations with his son, it has brought him closer to his daughter than ever before. The arrival of her granddaughters, the happy union that Joana maintains with coach Vítor Martins and the current marriage of the Porto president were the factors that, together, contributed to this family harmony.

“Joana is, at the moment, the closest family member to Jorge Nuno. In the past, they were more distant, but now the connection is very strong”, reports the source to explain that Joana has therefore established herself as the heir natural part of his father’s legacy and as his new trusted person. “She is, in many ways, her father’s successor. One of the people she trusts most, after having lost some of her pillars (as was the case with my great friend and confidant Reinaldo Teles).”

PEACE BETWEEN FATHER AND DAUGHTER

Daughter of the union between Pinto da Costa and Filomena Morais, Joana Pinto da Costa had, in the past, difficulty in accepting some of her father’s decisions and the two went through the most difficult phase when the Porto leader decided to separate from his daughter’s mother to take on a relationship with Fernanda Miranda. At that time, relations with Joana were tense and the young woman never made an effort to accept the Brazilian as her father’s companion. The two were completely incompatible, they did not coexist in the same places and there are even records of a mythical crash scene that took place in the most VIP corridors of the Estádio do Dragão.

With these differences, the relationship between father and daughter was naturally strengthened upon divorce and only improved with the arrival of Cláudia Campo, his current partner, into Pinto da Costa’s life. “Joana respects Cláudia and there is harmony like never happened in the past”says a source, adding that Pinto da Costa’s daughter will do everything to keep Fernanda Miranda, who in recent months has been trying to get closer, at a distance.

Youngest daughter gains ground and becomes Pinto da Costa’s trusted wife

“Cláudia has Joana’s respect and sympathy, so she is one of the great defenders of this marriage”says the source.

And this was visible at the premiere of the documentary where the two coexisted harmoniously. With an elegant and more sophisticated image, the banker, who officially married Pinto da Costa last summer, asserted herself as the new first lady of Dragão, while Joana asserted herself as her father’s right-hand man, taking his place left vacant by his half-brother Alexandre.

THE REASONS FOR THE FIRST ANGER

In 1998, Pinto da Costa and Alexandre fell out for the first time, in a rupture that ended up lasting around ten years. At the time, the cut in relations also had to do with player transfer deals. It all started when the businessman mediated the transfer of then footballer Zahovic, allegedly, without his father’s knowledge. Retaliation would not wait and, when Sérgio Conceição signed for Lazio, Alexandre was left out of the deal, with Pinto da Costa placing the player’s sale in the hands of Luciano D’Onofrio, as well as the respective committee. After the ‘betrayal’, Alexandre would end up getting closer to José Veiga and the then president of Benfica Luís Filipe Vieira, confirming the climate of tension with his father.

The family war would end up lasting several years and it was only in 2011 that the two made peace, after their father’s then partner, Fernanda, promoted reconciliation. With the gesture, the businesswoman, who had always been opposed by her husband’s youngest daughter, Joana, gained an ally while gaining points on family issues.

They then got back into a relationship and, although at first they tried to leave professional issues out of the equation, football, and more precisely business, ended up once again compromising the family relationship.

Alexandre Pinto da Costa was involved in some of FC Porto’s most lucrative deals, through a scheme that would see him receive extra commissions for the transaction of several footballers. The case would even go unnoticed if, in 2021, as part of the ‘Red Card’ operation, which led to the arrest of Luís Filipe Vieira, Alexandre’s name did not come up, suspected of receiving millions of euros in commissions from player deals, through two other businessmen linked to the northern club. In just four years, FC Porto earned businessmen the exorbitant sum of 64 million euros, with transfers being investigated and searches carried out at Alexandre’s house.

Later, and with the name of his son involved in the Football Leaks investigation, for having made deals that violate sports law, Pinto da Costa came to his defense, devaluing what was on the table.

Meet Cláudia Campo: the new First Lady of the Dragon who leads Pinto da Costa to get married for the fifth time

“It’s a problem that doesn’t worry me. It was Alexandre’s company that put Rolando at Marseille. In addition to not paying almost a million in wages, we still received around a million more. If he received it from someone else, I don’t care at all, nor do I care if the businessman is my son, cousin, father-in-law, son-in-law, friend or enemy. If the deal is good for FC Porto, I’ll do it, if it’s not, I won’t do it“, reacted the Porto leader.

It was at a time when Pinto da Costa was still worried about clearing his son’s name. Now, the case has changed completely and those closest to him say that the Porto leader shows no intention of forgiving him. Alexandre is now ‘persona non grata’ at Estádio do Dragão with the cut excluding him from the family again, who knows now for how many years…

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