It’s official. Chelsea announced today that the club has reached an agreement with Atletico Madrid to sign striker Diego Costa after meeting the buyout clause, which is believed to be £32million.
Costa and Atletico Madrid had been in talks to move the player to Stamford Bridge since the end of the Premier League season, which were interrupted when Costa played at World Cup 2014 for the Spanish national team.
Manager Jose Mourinho has been looking for offensive talent during the team’s offseason especially with Frank Lampard leaving and rumored to be joining a new MLS team in New York City. Mourinho has also managed to bring Barcelona’s Cesc Fabregas to the Blues as well.
Costa joined Atletico in 2007 but was loaned out to several other squads including Celta and Braga before finding his place in the team’s offense, scoring 35 goals last season alone. After being linked to a possible transfer to Liverpool last season, Costa choose to stay at Atleti and renewed his contract until 2018, doubling his salary as well.
Despite being born in Brazil, Costa obtained Spanish citizenship in 2013 and announced his desire to play for the Spanish national team, even having played two friendlies for Brazil earlier the same year. Costa started in Spain’s first two games in the group stage and did not play in their third game of the 2014 World Cup and was met with many boos from the Brazilian fans in the stadium.
After sustaining a hamstring injury late in the season, Costa was sent to Belgrade to be treated in hopes of having him play in their Champions League final against Real Madrid. However Costa only played eight minutes and Atletico ended up losing by a score of 4-1. Atletico Madrid manager Diego Simeone admitted that starting Costa was a mistake.
Costa was ruled healthy by Chelsea after undergoing the team’s physical and is expected to make an immediate impact to Chelsea’s struggling offense. After a season with only 71 goals, Chelsea finished third in the Premier League but had only a four-point difference behind the winners Manchester City.
