Jaume Vicent Costa Jordá made his Valencia CF first-team debut on 4 December 2008. It came in a UEFA Cup match against Club Brugge at Mestalla that ended 1-1, and he played the first 55 minutes before being substituted. Born in Valencia on 18 March 1988, he played as a left-back. That was his only official appearance for his hometown club in that spell. He spent most of his career at Villarreal CF, where he won the 2021 Europa League. He then played for RCD Mallorca and Albacete Balompié before retiring in 2025.
Valencia academy
Costa came through every level of Valencia’s youth system and reached the reserve side, Valencia CF Mestalla, where he began competing in 2007. In 2007-08 Mestalla finished second in the Tercera División and were promoted to Segunda División B. He played 35 league games at that level in 2008-09, the same season as his European debut for the first team. He had already played for Spain’s youth teams, with four appearances for the under-16s in 2004 and five for the under-17s across 2004 and 2005. In the summer of 2009 Valencia loaned him to Cádiz CF in the Spanish second division. He made 15 league appearances in a season that ended with the Andalusian club relegated.
In August 2010 he left Valencia for Villarreal’s reserve side, where he made 65 appearances and scored three goals over two seasons. His La Liga debut for the first team came on 4 March 2012 at La Romareda, where he played the full 90 minutes of a 2-1 defeat to Real Zaragoza. He made seven official appearances for the first team that season, which ended in relegation. He joined the senior squad for good in 2012. He played 33 games in the 2012-13 second-division campaign and was a key part of the side that returned to the top flight in 2013.
A decade in yellow
After promotion he was Villarreal’s first-choice left-back for several years. He made 32 appearances and scored once in 2013-14. The 2014-15 season was the busiest of his career, with 43 games, seven of them in European competition. He went on to play 27 games in 2015-16, 35 in 2016-17, 36 in 2017-18 and 29 in 2018-19. Most of those seasons included European matches for the club from Castellón province. He was never a goalscoring full-back: he scored one goal in several of those seasons, but his role in the team was defensive.
Valencia loan and a European title
On 13 August 2019 he returned to Valencia CF on a season-long loan from Villarreal. He played 25 official games for his hometown club in 2019-20, three of them in the Champions League. In 2020 he went back to Villarreal and played 25 games in 2020-21, scoring once in the Copa del Rey. That season the club won the 2021 Europa League, beating Manchester United on penalties in the final in Gdansk after a 1-1 draw. It was the last trophy of his time at Villarreal. His contract expired in June 2021, after more than 260 official appearances and six goals for the first team.
Mallorca and Albacete
On 7 July 2021 he signed for RCD Mallorca, who had just been promoted to La Liga. He spent three seasons on the island, all of them in the top flight, and made 95 official appearances. In the 2023-24 Copa del Rey he crossed for Giovanni González to head in a goal in the second leg of the semi-final against Real Sociedad. Mallorca went through on penalties. He was in the squad for the final on 6 April 2024 at La Cartuja in Seville, which Athletic Club won 4-2 on penalties after a 1-1 draw. On 7 August 2024 he joined Albacete Balompié in the Spanish second division. A broken fibula kept him out for much of the season, and he made only 14 league appearances.
Retirement and coaching
In June 2025 he announced his retirement from professional football at the end of his spell with Albacete. He made 517 official appearances and scored nine goals across Valencia, Cádiz, Villarreal, Mallorca and Albacete. In July 2025 he returned to Villarreal to work in the academy, as assistant to David Cifuentes with Villarreal C in the Tercera Federación.
