The first time Diego Costa arrived in Spain to
sign for Atletico Madrid, he was wearing flip-flops and Bermuda shorts.
It was the depths of winter. He was freezing.
This time it's different. He's not a greenhorn
anymore. When he arrived back in Europe on Friday, landing in Madrid
airport from Sao Paulo after three months of football exile, he was
better prepared. He breezed up to the arrivals gate wearing a pair of
jeans and a white t-shirt, ideal clothing for a balmy Spanish autumn
day.
A scrum of reporters thrust their microphones in
front of him. With his big, 6'2" frame, he towered over them, answering
about a dozen questions with assurance. He was content. "I am very
happy," he said, per Marca TV. "It has taken a long time, but it has a
happy ending."
The saga of Costa's refusal to return to Chelsea
for training, holding out for a return move to Atletico Madrid, drew to a
close with the announcement last Thursday that Atletico had bought the
striker back for a fee that could reach €65 million, per Marca. It's a
club-record fee. The drama kept football fans engrossed over the idle
summer months and into the early part of the season.
Costa is a sought-after asset, one of only a
handful of proven, match-winning strikers in the great European leagues.
The fact he turned his nose up at a higher bid from Everton, £70
million according to the BBC, to return to Atletico, the club he left
for Chelsea three years ago, shows how firm his ties are to the Spanish
club. With Costa and Atletico, it's personal. So much so that he told
the club's official website upon his arrival he was coming "home."
Fran Guillen, author of Diego Costa: The Art of
War, explains the ties that bind Costa to Atletico: "Because it is the
team that propelled Costa into the elite, dragging him almost out of
nowhere. Diego Simeone, in particular, was very sincere with him in his
early days as a player and ended up betting blindly on Costa—you only
have to see the way he selected Costa to play in the Champions League
final in Lisbon when he wasn't fully fit. Costa is the ideal striker for
a Simeone team and Simeone is the ideal coach for a striker of Costa's
features."
Costa and Diego Simeone have a close bond.Clive Rose/Getty Images
Costa—who will turn 29 on October 7—has been
prolific with Atletico and Chelsea for the past five seasons, pocketing
three league winners' medals and becoming the sixth-fastest player to
score 40 goals in English Premier League history (despite enduring a
mutinous 2015-2016 season).
One of the mysteries about Costa, though, is that
his career failed to take flight until his mid-20s. For several years,
he floated around the backwaters of La Liga, farmed out on loan by
Atletico to a succession of clubs, including Celta Vigo, Albacete,
Valladolid and Rayo Vallecano.
Costa's main flaw was that he was rough around the
edges. He needed grooming. He had never trained in a football academy
in Brazil, having grown up in Lagarto, one of the poorest and most
remote regions in the country. He landed in Europe as a street
footballer—abrasive and quick to flail defenders.
"He didn't have the education of a regular
player," says El Pais journalist Ladislao J. Monino. "He had a lot of
virtues but he took part in a lot of fights on the pitch. He was used to
playing in the street and when somebody gave him a nudge, he responded.
In Spain, we say he behaved like a 'macarra de playground'—a playground
thug—on the pitch."
Atletico's manager, Simeone, however, saw
something in him. Simeone, who it was said used to play with a penknife
stuck between his teeth, recognised a kindred spirit.
"When I saw him in training, I wanted to die,"
said Simeone, per BBC. "He was unstoppable. Diego Costa transmits a
strength that has a contagious effect on the rest of the group. He gives
everything, but he has to learn to control himself. People say he plays
at the limit; curiously, they also said that about me."
Costa was sent off against Plzen.Petr David Josek/Associated Press
Costa's brushes with the dark arts are legion.
He's stamped, spat and sledged his way past defences for the last
decade. In December 2012, he picked up a four-game ban for head-butting a
player from Viktoria Plzen in the Europa League. He'll do anything to
get an edge. He has the kind of never-say-die spirit that Simeone prizes
in his players, and which explains why Atletico have overachieved since
Simeone took over as manager in December 2011.
Costa has shared in some of Simeone's greatest
triumphs at the club, including a historic 2-1 Copa del Rey final win
against Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabeu in 2013, in which Costa
scored, as well as registering 27 goals en route to Atletico's landmark
La Liga title win in May 2014.
"Together they achieved great things," says
Patricia Cazon, a journalist with Diario AS. "Costa is the player that
Simeone wanted more than anyone else. They are very empathic. Sometimes
you meet someone that you need to say very little to. Words are
unnecessary. We say in Spain, ‘this person reaches my soul.' I think
that's what has happened in this case."
"The relationship is very good between them
because Costa has a warrior side that Simeone likes," says Monino,
"because Simeone was that way as a player, and that makes them close to
each other. Also Simeone has protected him a lot against the world
outside, but inside the club, he has given out to him when Costa has
shown unsporting attitudes against opponents or when he couldn't control
his warrior spirit.
Costa and Filipe Luis will be back together again.Gonzalo Arroyo Moreno/Getty Images
"Simeone also got to know Diego Costa the person.
Costa is very charismatic. He is very funny. He makes a lot of jokes in
the dressing room and goofs around with his team-mates. And when Costa
was on loan to Rayo, and the Atletico players were on the bus home from a
match listening to the radio and they heard about Diego Costa, they
would cheer. He's popular. Simeone noticed this."
The pair of Atletico stars—the manager and the
returning player—are so tight now, adds Monino, that Simeone didn't have
any problem in having a picture taken together having dinner in a
Madrid restaurant last season while Costa was still a Chelsea player.
There are other links that have drawn Costa back
to the club. He has a telepathic understanding with Koke on the pitch.
Filipe Luis, who also boomeranged back to Atletico after an
unsatisfactory season with Chelsea 2014-2015, is Costa's closest friend
among the players.
Tiago—who soldiered alongside Costa on Atletico's
league-winning team a few seasons ago, and is now one of Simeone's
assistant coaches—has been pivotal in luring Costa back to the club and
will be vital in getting him fit for his return to action in January
when Atletico's ban on registering players expires.
"Tiago is like his father," says Monino. "He is
the only person Costa really listens to. Actually Tiago convinced Costa
to go to Chelsea in the first place because Tiago was about to return to
Chelsea [where he won a championship in 2005] as well, but Jose
Mourinho left Tiago out in the end so Tiago had to remain at Atletico.
But Tiago was a key reason why Diego Costa went to Chelsea originally.
"Now Tiago is here at Atletico as a coach, it's
one of his missions to mind Costa—to make sure Costa behaves well,
trains well. Costa is a player with a tendency to get fat easily, so
Tiago—who is the only one Costa will do what he says—is important."
Tiago will be charged with keeping Costa focused.GERARD JULIEN/Getty Images
It will fall on the shoulders of the club's
martinet physical trainer, Oscar Ortega, to whip Costa into shape.
According to Monino, Ortega is in awe of Costa's natural strength:
"Ortega says he never saw a player physically like Costa—that one time
after seven months out with a knee injury, he could put in so much
effort."
Atletico are in good nick in advance of the visit
of Chelsea in the Champions League group stages. They drew away to AS
Roma in the competition's first round of fixtures and remain undefeated
in La Liga, lying in second place behind early pacemakers Barcelona.
It remains to be seen whether Costa will be able
to propel them to another league title, or even to go one step further
and win the Champions League after two near misses in 2014 and 2016.
"We can only guess," says Cazon. "We will see in
January. I think if Simeone wanted him so much and Costa is crazy about
playing here, I don't think Costa will disappoint. He will definitely
leave his skin on the pitch."
All quotes and information obtained firsthand unless otherwise indicated.
Follow Richard on Twitter: @Richard_Fitz
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