What happened to FC Porto's and José Mourinho's Champions League winning players?

FC Porto winning the Champions League in 2003/04 against AS Monaco was pure football history. The Dragons crowned themselves European champions with a team nobody thought could do it. What happened to the players who started in the final, for many of them, the biggest triumph of their career?

Porto's main man at the time, however, was not a player, but their coach: José Mourinho. After his success in Portugal, Mourinho became 'The Special One' at Chelsea and one of the best coaches ever at Real Madrid and Internazionale, among other big clubs. The rest is history.

Porto's goalkeeper at the time was the experienced Vitor Baía, who returned to his youth club in 1999 after a spell at FC Barcelona. Baía was happy at Porto, winning the Champions League and eventually retiring in 2007 with a Portuguese league title.

On the right-back, Porto relied on Paulo Ferreira, who followed his coach and was a part of Mourinho's successful first spell at The Blues. Ferreira hung up his boots at Stamford Bridge and worked as a loan player manager for Chelsea. He is currently assistant manager at French side LOSC Lille.

Centrally in defence, captain Jorge Costa had to provide stability in Mourinho's team. Just like Baía, the experienced Portuguese returned to Porto after a spell abroad, but he ended his career in Belgium, at Standard Liège. After his playing career, Costa managed clubs in Portugal, Greece, Cyprus, France and India, amongst others, and was in even in charge of the Gabon national team. Today, he heads Avs FS in Portugal.

Costa was paired in defence with Ricardo Carvalho, who had a prolific career after Porto, excelling at Chelsea, Real Madrid and AS Monaco, before retiring in China in 2018. Carvalho is currently assistant manager of the Portuguese national team, having had a similar role earlier at Olympique Marseille.

Nuno Valente was Mourinho's main left-back in the Champions League final and the rest of the 2003/04 season. The former Portugal international crowned his triumphs at Porto with a transfer to Everton in 2005, where he retired four years later and went to work as head scout. After his career, he worked as assistant manager at Sporting and head coach of CD Trofense until January 2018.

In midfield we find Costinha, who went on to play for Dinamo Moscow, Atlético Madrid and Atalanta, before trying his luck as team coordinator at Sporting and football director at Swiss side Servette FC. He then served as manager at Beira-Mar, Paços Ferreira, Coimbra and Nacional.

Next up is Pedro Mendes, who earned a move to Tottenham after the Champions League final and also went on to play for Portsmouth. After spells at Rangers, Sporting and Vitoria Guimarães, little is known about whether he is still active in football nowadays.

Like Mendes, Maniche moved to the Premier League and more specifically Chelsea after winning the Champions League and a Russian spell at Dinamo Moscow. Further periods at Atlético, Internazionale, 1. FC Köln and Sporting led him to assistant managerial roles at Paços Ferreira and Coimbra, until 2016.

Mourinho's playmaker at the time was Deco, who excelled with his outstanding touch and technical skills. That was enough to convince FC Barcelona to pay €21 million in 2004, where Deco would go on to win another Champions League and two league titles. After a trophy-laden adventure at Chelsea and a return to his native Brazil at Fluminense, he worked as a scout for FC Barcelona and is now the current sporting director in Catalonia.

Carlos Alberto scored the opening goal against Monaco in the 2004 Champions League final, but that was not the start of the outstanding career everyone expected. The Brazilian was sold for €7.8 million to Werder Bremen, where he failed to live up to expectations. After periods at various Brazilian clubs, he retired in 2019, and it is not clear whether he is still active in football or not.

Derlei, Carlos Alberto's compatriot, left Porto in 2005 to play for Dinamo Moscow, Benfica, Sporting, EC Vitória and Madureira. He retired in 2010 and little is known about his adventures in football since then.

Dmitriy Alenichev consolidated Porto's win against Monaco with a third Portuguese goal and, thus, wrote his name into history books. He left Portugal at the end of that same season to defend the colours of Spartak Moscow, his last club. Later in his career, he managed Russia's U18s, Arsenal Tula, Spartak Moscow and Enisey Krasnoyarsk.

South African Benni McCarthy built a fine career with the likes of Ajax, Celta de Vigo, Porto and Blackburn, but it was at The Dragons that he celebrated his greatest success. After his playing career, he became (assistant) manager in Belgium and South Africa, and currently McCarthy works as a forward coach at Manchester United.

Ultimately, Pedro Emanuel spent his entire playing career in Portugal, the absolute highlight being 2004. As a manager he ventured abroad after starting in his native country, working in Cyprus, UAE, Spain and Saudi Arabia, where he is currently managing Al-Khaleej.