Douglas Costa is the latest big name in sports to be charged for failure to pay alimony, and another Brazilian who may have played his last game in the US.
The wave of high-profile MLS player departures from Brazil may not be over. After Cincinnati’s Brenner was negotiated with Udinese and Luiz Araujo’s recent signing with Flamengo in Brazil, it is now Douglas Costa’s fate in the league, which seems all but sealed.
According to GE Sports in Brazil, the Brazilian Minister of Justice of Rio Grande do Sul has just decreed the arrest of the forward, formerly of Grêmio and currently at the LA Galaxy in California. The charge is for the non-payment of alimony, a severe offense in the Brazilian legal system, a move which may catalyze the Brazilian’s departure from his Club in Major League Soccer and back to Brazil, and one that will surely increase tensions in the already troubled relationship between the veteran and his current club.
GE reviewed a copy of the arrest at the 8th family court of Porto Alegre and deemed the claim truthful. Territorio MLS reached out to Mr. Costa’s lawyer in Brazil, Sergio Queiros, but, at the time of the publication, received no response. We also contacted the Galaxy’s media team for comment but received no answers at the time of this publication.
Douglas Costa and LA Galaxy: a marriage of failure and misstep
The timing of the GE story and investigation is almost impeccable to the league’s reports depicting Douglas as one of the best-payed athletes in Major League Soccer, the best-paid Brazilian in North American soccer. Douglas is the latest big salary name to seem to have gone off the rails, a significant warning sign that the lone wolf DP model or even a pair of them up front may not get a Club to improve, let alone raise trophies.
Brazilian journalist and Territorio MLS contributor Ewerton Pacheco mentioned a few words in his article in Portuguese about the Brazilian winger’s time in Carson, where the Galaxy train and play home games. With state-of-the-art facilities, great professionals, and playing in one of the most prominent markets in all of Major League Soccer, Douglas had all the tools to make Los Angeles his. After all, LA was the latest stage to welcome the former Serie A man, like a King, literally on a throne. This will likely be the last of LA Galaxy’s GM Chris Klein’s experiment at the realm: the idea of pairing up Costa with Mexican star Javier Chicharito, a duo that on paper was sure to yield more than what we’ve seen of them when playing side by side.
With an extensive history of injuries, the Galaxy’s number 10 and Designated Player never managed to play the role that was expected by the public, and the high expectations that were created continue to frustrate the team’s fans, who wished to see a fine-tuned duo between the Brazilian and Javier Chicharito. The player’s numbers last season show some of these statistics since his arrival at the Galaxy until the present moment.
@EwertonPacheco – Territorio MLS
Now were the expectations fair and in line with the veteran’s stats? In 2022, the Brazilian participated in 29 games for the LA Galaxy, logged roughly 1500 minutes, and scored four times in the regular season, adding one assist.
In fact, Douglas’ scoring for the Galaxy last year was 0.26 per 90 minutes played, essentially his career average for scoring frequency.
After a closer look, though, it seems Douglas showed signs of being a declining player in the last 3–4 seasons in many of the key stats that made him special in the years that led to his call-up to the 2018 World Cup in Russia. Ever since, it’s been mostly a downhill spiral, fogged by a quick new stint in the Bundesliga on loan and a forgetful season at Gremio back in Brazil. So, after a massive negotiation with Juventus and his home team, Costa was signed as a Designated Player to play in MLS following a very noisy stint in Porto Alegre.
Though his shooting regressed, that has never really been Costa’s game. A winger by nature, he made most of his damage as an assist man right off the dribble to serve his companions at Juventus, Shaktar, and Bayern.
His stats as a passer and an assist is where it indeed shows just how much Douglas Costa did regress as a player, perhaps the latest international star to misjudge MLS’s intense physicality by its center and fullbacks. Inefficient off the dribble, Costa’s successful take on % dipped to just above 50% in 2022, the worst of this career, while the % he was tackled during a dribbling attempt skyrocketed, limiting the player’s ability to go 1:1 against players while opening up lanes for teammates in unbalanced defensive situations.
As a result, his assists sunk and bottomed at 0.06 per 90 minutes – a number almost negligible and lower than the averages of Efrain Alvarez, Samuel Grandsir, Kevin Cabral, Raheem Edwards, Rayan Reveloson, and Marky Delgado, a defensive midfielder.
2023 to forget for Douglas Costa and the LA Galaxy
In the current season, Douglas suffered another injury and had his debut in the competition postponed until Week 6, in the LA Galaxy’s 2-1 defeat by the Seattle Sounders, playing for about 15 minutes.
Suddenly, there was speculation that Costa wanted to return to Grêmio again and seek his best football in Brazil. Cesar Fabris, a close contact of the player, mentioned the player’s interest in returning to the club was revealed directly to him in a private conversation, even saying he’d give up his salary entirely to return to the Tricolor Gaúcho.
Now Douglas seems bound home also, but for a very different reason, child support evasion. A crime of real consequences in the South American country where several other well-known footballers have end up in jail for the same reason.
For the Galaxy, perhaps, an easy way to end a bad marriage at a time when the team is looking for answers in MLS competition but eyeing a comeback story centered on trying to win the US Open Cup.
