Chelsea complete Costa deal
- adamhigginsuk
- Jul 15, 2014
- 2 min read
Explosive form: Costa netted 27 times in 35 Spanish top-flight appearances last term (Picture from Press Association)
CHELSEA have completed the signing of Atletico Madrid's Diego Costa for a fee in the region of £32 million on a five-year deal.
The 25-year-old striker, who scored an impressive 64 goals in 134 Atletico appearances, becomes the London club's third signing of the summer after Cesc Fabregas and Mario Pasalic.
The Spanish international scored 36 goals in 52 games last term as Atleti won their first La Liga title in 18 years and reached the Champions League final after overcoming Chelsea in the semi-finals.
"I am very happy to sign for Chelsea. Everybody knows it is a big club in a very competitive league, and I am very excited to get started in England with a fantastic coach and team-mates" Costa told the club's website.
"Having played against Chelsea last season I know the high quality of the squad I am joining.
"I would like to thank everybody at Atletico who made me into the player I am, it was an incredible time for me, but now I am starting a new adventure and I hope to win many trophies with Chelsea."
Costa - and new Blues team-mate Fabregas - was a member of Spain's disappointing World Cup campaign in Brazil where they exited at the group stages.
Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho had made the capture of a prolific centre-forward his priority in the transfer market after their struggles in front of goal last season.
The Blues scored 31 goals fewer than Premier League champions while strikers Samuel Eto'o, Demba Ba and Fernando Torres netted just 31 goals between them in all competitions.
Costa began his career at Braga and joined Atletico in 2006 before signing for Real Valladolid in 2009 after loan spells with Braga, Celta Vigo and Albecete.
Following the club's relegation from La Liga in 2010, Costa returned to the Vicente Calderon and established himself as a first-team regular in the 2012/13 campaign after recovering from an injury which ruled him out of the first half of the 2011-12 season.
He played a key role as Atletico won the Copa del Rey that season, scoring eight goals in total and one in their 2-1 win over Madrid rivals Real in the final.
Costa hit top form last term, scoring 27 goals in La Liga last term - a tally only Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi could better.
He will join Chelsea on their pre-season training camp of Austria next week as they build towards their Premier League opener against newly-promoted Burnley on 18 August.
Last updated: 15 July 2014 17:43pm
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