Diego Costa

Diego Costa
Costa with Atlético Madrid in 2019
Personal information
Full name Diego da Silva Costa[1]
Date of birth (1988-10-07) 7 October 1988 (age 36)[2]
Place of birth Lagarto, Brazil
Height 1.86 m (6 ft 1 in)[3]
Position(s) Striker
Club information
Current team
Grêmio
Number 19
Youth career
2004–2006 Barcelona-SP
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2006 Braga 0 (0)
2006Penafiel (loan) 13 (5)
2007–2009 Atlético Madrid 0 (0)
2007Braga (loan) 6 (0)
2007–2008Celta (loan) 30 (6)
2008–2009Albacete (loan) 35 (10)
2009–2010 Valladolid 34 (8)
2010–2014 Atlético Madrid 94 (43)
2012Rayo Vallecano (loan) 16 (10)
2014–2017 Chelsea 89 (52)
2017–2020 Atlético Madrid 61 (12)
2021–2022 Atlético Mineiro 15 (4)
2022–2023 Wolverhampton Wanderers 23 (1)
2023 Botafogo 12 (3)
2024– Grêmio 7 (6)
National team
2013 Brazil 2 (0)
2014– Spain 24 (10)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 23:29, 27 August 2023 (UTC)

Diego da Silva Costa (born 7 October 1988) is a Brazilian-Spanish footballer who plays as a striker for Grêmio and the Spanish national football team.

Football Career

Costa was born in Brazil, and played for the Brazil national football team for the first time in 2013.[4] However, he then chose to play for Spain. This made the Brazilian football manager, Luiz Felipe Scolari, very angry.[5] The Brazilian Football Confederation have even asked the country's government to remove Costa's citizenship. (The right to be a country's citizen).[6]

In March 2014, Costa became a member of the Spanish national football team. This was when he was granted his Spanish citizenship. He made his first appearance against Italy and represented Spain in the 2014 FIFA World Cup.

Youth career

Costa spent 2 years at Barcelona Esportivo Capela (Brazillian football club), from 2004 to 2006. After this, he then began his senior career in Portugal by joining Penafiel.

Senior Career

Penafiel (Loan)

In the same year as joining Braga, he was sent on a loan spell to Penafiel. He played 13 league games with 5 goals.

Atletico Madrid (2007–09)

In 2007, Costa joined Atletico Madrid for a fee of 1,500,000. Unfortunately, he didn't get a game to play due to loan spells.

Braga (Loan)

Diego Costa remained at Braga in 2007 but on a loan spell. This time, he made 7 league appearances, but he failed to score a goal. In the UEFA Cup, he scored his first goal in a domestic cup against Parma F.C. (Italian football team).

Celta de Vigo (Loan)

He was then loaned to Celta for the 2007-08 Segunda Division season. In that season, he made an impressive 30 appearances and scored 5 goals.

Albacete (Loan)

Staying in the Segunda Division, he then joined on loan Albacete Balompie for the 2008-09 season. At this loan spell, he made 35 league appearances and 9 goals.

Real Valladolid

Costa was bought by Real Valladolid from Atletico Madrid in 2009 Transfer Window. In this 2009-10 season, he made 34 league appearances with 8 goals. But it wasn't enough to keep Valladolid in La Liga, the top division in Spain. Valladolid was eventually relegated to the Segunda División.

Return to Atletico Madrid

Costa returned to Atletico in June 2010 for an undisclosed fee. Since then, Costa has made a superb 94 league appearances and 43 league goals during his 4 year spell with the club. In his time, he suffered with a few injuries during his time. This include his hamstring injury he suffered near to the end of the 2013-14 La Liga season.

Costa playing for Chelsea against Arsenal in October 2014

Chelsea

On 1 July 2014, it was announced that Chelsea had agreed a fee with Atletico to sign Costa for a fee of £32 million. He made his first league appearance against Burnley in a game which he scored in for Chelsea to win 3–1.

Career statistics

Club

As of match played 14 April 2024[7]
Club Season League National cup[a] League cup[b] Continental Other Total
Division Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals
Penafiel (loan) 2006–07 Liga de Honra 13 5 1 0 14 5
Braga (loan) 2006–07 Primeira Liga 6 0 1 0 2[c] 1 9 1
Celta Vigo (loan) 2007–08 Segunda División 30 6 1 0 31 6
Albacete (loan) 2008–09 Segunda División 35 10 1 0 36 10
Valladolid 2009–10 La Liga 34 8 2 1 36 9
Atlético Madrid 2010–11 La Liga 28 6 5 1 6[d] 1 39 8
2012–13 La Liga 31 10 8 8 5[d] 2 44 20
2013–14 La Liga 35 27 6 1 9[e] 8 2[f] 0 52 36
Total 94 43 19 10 20 11 2 0 135 64
Rayo Vallecano (loan) 2011–12 La Liga 16 10 0 0 16 10
Chelsea 2014–15 Premier League 26 20 1 0 3 1 7[e] 0 37 21
2015–16 Premier League 28 12 4 2 1 0 8[e] 2 41 16
2016–17 Premier League 35 20 5 2 2 0 42 22
2017–18 Premier League 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Total 89 52 10 4 6 1 15 2 120 59
Atlético Madrid 2017–18 La Liga 15 3 3 2 5[d] 2 23 7
2018–19 La Liga 16 2 0 0 4[e] 1 1[g] 2 21 5
2019–20 La Liga 23 5 0 0 7[e] 0 0 0 30 5
2020–21 La Liga 7 2 0 0 0 0 7 2
Total 61 12 3 2 16 3 1 2 81 19
Atlético Madrid total 155 55 22 12 36 14 3 2 216 83
Atlético Mineiro 2021 Série A 15 4 3 1 1[h] 0 19 5
Wolverhampton Wanderers 2022–23 Premier League 23 1 1 0 1 0 25 1
Botafogo 2023 Série A 13 3 0 0 2[i] 0 15 3
Grêmio 2024 Série A 1 0 0 0 1[h] 0 6[j] 6 8 6
Career total 430 154 42 18 7 1 57 17 9 8 543 198
  1. Includes Taça de Portugal, Copa del Rey, FA Cup, Copa do Brasil
  2. Includes Football League Cup/EFL Cup
  3. Appearances in UEFA Cup
  4. 4.0 4.1 4.2 Appearances in UEFA Europa League
  5. 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 Appearances in UEFA Champions League
  6. Appearances in Supercopa de España
  7. Appearance in UEFA Super Cup
  8. 8.0 8.1 Appearances in Copa Libertadores
  9. Appearances in Copa Sudamericana
  10. Appearances in Campeonato Gaúcho

International

Appearances and goals by national team and year

As of match played 1 July 2018[8]
National team Year Apps Goals
Brazil
2013 2 0
Total 2 0
Spain
2014 7 1
2015 3 0
2016 4 3
2017 2 2
2018 8 4
Total 24 10
Career total 26 10
As of match played 20 June 2018. Spain score listed first, score column indicates score after each Costa goal.[8][9]
International goals by date, venue, cap, opponent, score, result and competition
No. Date Venue Cap Opponent Score Result Competition
1 12 October 2014 Stade Josy Barthel, Luxembourg City, Luxembourg 7  Luxembourg 3–0 4–0 UEFA Euro 2016 qualification
2 5 September 2016 Estadio Reino de León, León, Spain 12  Liechtenstein 1–0 8–0 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification
3 5–0
4 9 October 2016 Loro Boriçi Stadium, Shkodër, Albania 14  Albania 1–0 2–0 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification
5 24 March 2017 El Molinón, Gijón, Spain 15  Israel 3–0 4–1 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification
6 11 June 2017 Philip II Arena, Skopje, Macedonia 16  Macedonia 2–0 2–1 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification
7 27 March 2018 Wanda Metropolitano, Madrid, Spain 18  Argentina 1–0 6–1 Friendly
8 15 June 2018 Fisht Olympic Stadium, Sochi, Russia 21  Portugal 1–1 3–3 2018 FIFA World Cup
9 2–2
10 20 June 2018 Kazan Arena, Kazan, Russia 22  Iran 1–0 1–0 2018 FIFA World Cup

Honours

Chelsea supporters' banner in honour of Costa, November 2014

Atlético Madrid

Chelsea

Atlético Mineiro

Grêmio

Individual

Records

International career

During his international career, he started with the Brazilian National Team in 2013. He only made 2 appearances with no goals. But controversy was created when Costa was granted a Spanish citizenship in 2014. Then, Costa adopted Spain as his national side. He made his debut against Italy on the 5 March 2014. Spain won 1–0. Costa was called-up to play for Spain in the 2014 FIFA World Cup. He started for both of the first two games of Spain's tournament against the Netherlands and Chile, but was rested against Australia. Spain lost 5–1 against Holland And 2–0 against Chile. They did win 3–0 against Australia in their final group game, but it wasn't enough to keep them to progress into the knock out phases. Costa is still yet to score a goal for Spain during his time playing as a striker for the national side.

References

  1. "Acta del Partido celebrado el 06 de abril de 2019, en Barcelona" [Minutes of the Match held on 6 April 2019, in Barcelona] (in Spanish). Royal Spanish Football Federation. Retrieved 17 June 2019.[permanent dead link]
  2. "FIFA World Cup Russia 2018: List of Players: Spain" (PDF). FIFA. 15 July 2018. p. 28. Archived from the original (PDF) on 11 June 2019. Retrieved 17 June 2019.
  3. "Diego Costa". Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C. Archived from the original on 22 March 2023. Retrieved 7 November 2022.
  4. "Italy 2 - 2 Brazil Match report - 3/21/13 Friendlies - Goal.com". www.goal.com. Archived from the original on 2018-06-17. Retrieved 2019-02-15.
  5. "Diego Costa snubs call up from home country Brazil to represent Spain - inside World Soccer". www.insideworldsoccer.com.
  6. Jackson, Henry. "CBF demand Diego Costa loses Brazilian citizenship - Goal.com". www.goal.com.
  7. Diego Costa at Soccerway
  8. 8.0 8.1 "Diego Costa". National-Football-Teams.com. Retrieved 22 August 2014.
  9. "Diego Costa". European Football. Retrieved 25 March 2017.
  10. Rose, Gary (17 May 2014). "Barcelona 1–1 Atlético Madrid". BBC Sport. Retrieved 25 May 2014.
  11. "Diego Costa: His last trophy, the story of his abrupt Atletico departure and a possible move to Turkey". Marca. 18 June 2021.
  12. "Ronaldo red as Atletico win the Cup". ESPN FC. 17 May 2013. Retrieved 18 May 2013.
  13. McNulty, Phil (25 May 2014). "Real Madrid 4–1 Atlético Madrid". BBC Sport. Retrieved 27 April 2019.
  14. Hafez, Shamoon (16 May 2018). "Marseille 0–3 Atlético Madrid". BBC Sport. Retrieved 27 April 2019.
  15. "Slick Atlético seal Super Cup success". UEFA. 27 August 2010. Archived from the original on 24 October 2018.
  16. "Chelsea 1–4 Atl Madrid". BBC Sport. 1 September 2012. Archived from the original on 13 January 2016.
  17. Sanders, Emma (15 August 2018). "Real Madrid 2–4 Atlético Madrid". BBC Sport. Retrieved 27 April 2019.
  18. 18.0 18.1 "Diego Costa: Overview". Premier League. Retrieved 29 September 2018.
  19. McNulty, Phil (27 May 2017). "Arsenal 2–1 Chelsea". BBC Sport. Retrieved 18 May 2019.
  20. McNulty, Phil (1 March 2015). "Chelsea 2–0 Tottenham Hotspur". BBC Sport. Retrieved 27 April 2019.
  21. "Atletico Mineiro wins 1st Brazilian championship in 50 years". AP NEWS. 3 December 2021. Archived from the original on 3 December 2021. Retrieved 3 December 2021.
  22. "Premios Liga BBVA y Liga Adelante a los mejores del mes" [Liga BBVA and Liga Adelante prizes for the best of the month] (in Spanish). Liga de Fútbol Profesional. 22 October 2013. Retrieved 8 November 2014.
  23. "Liga BBVA team of the season". Archived from the original on 5 December 2018. Retrieved 26 January 2016.
  24. "Diego Costa gana el Trofeo EFE como mejor iberoamericano de la Liga española" [Diego Costa wins the Trofeo EFE as the best Ibero-American in the Spanish Liga]. El Economista (in Spanish). 18 May 2014. Retrieved 13 September 2014.
  25. "UEFA Champions League squad of the season". UEFA. 2 June 2014. Retrieved 26 January 2016.
  26. "Simeone, Courtois and Diego Costa, received awards from MARCA". Atlético de Madrid. 10 November 2014.
  27. "Chelsea's Eden Hazard named PFA Player of the Year". BBC Sport. 26 April 2015. Retrieved 7 May 2018.
  28. "Costa sets UEFA Super Cup record with first minute goal against Real Madrid". Goal.com. 15 August 2018.