Costa delighted at ‘beautiful’ return
Atletico, who sold him to Chelsea for £32m in 2014, has threatened to taint his legacy among the Chelsea following. But he insisted: “Everybody knows how much I love the [Chelsea] fans.”
Atletico have effectively agreed to initially take the striker on loan, which means they will pay his current £150,000-a-week salary at Chelsea even though they cannot register him until the new year.
It is understood Atletico will give Chelsea an initial £48.4m, with another £8.8m in add-ons.
As Standard Sport reported yesterday, the transfer is set to be completed before Chelsea take on Atletico at their new Wanda Metropolitano Stadium on Wednesday. He will first attend their match against Sevilla tomorrow, where he will get a very warm reception.
Costa, who described his return to Atletico as “beautiful”, scored 35 goals for them in 2013-14 to help them win La Liga and reach the Champions League Final.
Atletico fitness coach Óscar Ortega is believed to have drawn up a special training programme in order to get him fit for the start of January. Costa has only been able to do basic sessions on his own while in Brazil and is said to be a few months away from being ready to play competitive football again.
Atletico will make Costa do double and possible even treble training sessions, as well as involve him in practice games behind closed doors.
His imminent return has been greeted warmly by the Atletico players, including former Chelsea left-back Filipe Luís. He said: “I am proud of the effort to bring one of the three best strikers in the world. He comes here to fight, work and make us all better. I am very happy that my friend is coming back.”
Meanwhile, Kurt Zouma admits he wants Stoke City to beat his parent club Chelsea at the bet365 Stadium tomorrow.
Zouma, who joined Stoke on a seasonlong loan from Chelsea in July, cannot face Conte’s side due to loan rules. But he has no split loyalties, saying: “It will be weird but I am a Stoke City player so I hope we win this game.
“I’m very happy because I play a lot of matches, but I can’t be happy if we lose. I am only happy if the team is winning and doing well.”