Diego Costa

**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. However, he then chose to play for Spain. This made the Brazilian football manager, Luiz Felipe Scolari, very angry. The Brazilian Football Confederation have even asked the country's government to remove Costa's citizenship. (The right to be a country's citizen).

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 (Brazilian 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 . 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. 
 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
### International
**Appearances and goals by national team and year**

:*As of match played 20 June 2018. Spain score listed first, score column indicates score after each Costa goal.*

## Honours 
**Atlético Madrid**
*La Liga: 2013–14, 2020–21
*Copa del Rey: 2012–13
*UEFA Champions League runner-up: 2013–14
*UEFA Europa League: 2017–18
*UEFA Super Cup: 2010, 2012, 2018

**Chelsea**
*Premier League: 2014–15, 2016–17
*FA Cup runner-up: 2016–17
*Football League Cup: 2014–15

**Atlético Mineiro**
* Campeonato Brasileiro Série A: 2021
* Copa do Brasil: 2021

**Grêmio**
* Campeonato Gaúcho: 2024

**Individual**
*La Liga Player of the Month: September 2013
*La Liga Team of the Season: 2013–14
*Trofeo EFE: 2013–14
*UEFA Champions League Team of the Season: 2013–14
*Zarra Trophy: 2013–14
*Premier League Player of the Month: August 2014, November 2016

**Records**
*Fastest goal in the UEFA Super Cup: 2018 (49 seconds in against Real Madrid)

## 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