Diego Costa, during his time at Atlético Mineiro. /
Mercado
The veteran striker was without a team after winning the Brasileirao and his country’s Cup last year with Atlético Mineiro
Diego Costa returns to Rayo Vallecano ten years after leaving the red-and-red club where he played for one season (2011-2012), on loan from Atlético de Madrid. The veteran Spanish-Brazilian striker (33 years old) will meet Radamel Falcao at Rayo, along with whom he won the European Super Cup in 2012 and the Cup in 2013 with the mattresses and also shared a dressing room at Chelsea.
After a year and a half at Atlético Mineiro, with whom he was proclaimed champion of the Brasileirao and the Cup of his country of birth in 2021, Diego Costa was without a team. Given that Rayo led by Andoni Iraola only had two pure strikers, Radamel Falcao and Sergio Camello -on loan from Atlético-, the Vallecano team needed another striker and has found a solution in the former Spanish international.
Blocked at Atlético Mineiro by fellow Brazilian Hulk, Brasileirao’s top scorer last year (19 goals), Diego Costa joined the Belo Horizonte team in the final stretch of the season to help win the title 50 years later. With Mineiro, Rayo’s new signing played 15 league games and scored four goals, after being plagued by injuries in his last season with Diego Pablo Simeone’s team.
Diego Costa also won La Liga with Atlético in 2014, when the striker from Lagarto exploded with 27 goals in the championship. His performance in the rojiblanco team earned him to represent Spain in the World Cup in Brazil, and he was also called up for the 2016 European Championship and the 2018 World Cup in Russia, where he was the starting center forward for La Roja.
The flaming rayista signing has been an express request from the president of the Madrid club, Raúl Martín Presa. «With Diego Costa I don’t know what will happen. At the moment we have Falcao and Camello. We trust that the best decision will be made, ”Andoni Iraola settled this Thursday when asked about the possibility of hiring him. This season, Diego Costa will earn 1.5 million euros gross.
Although the Spanish-Brazilian has been inactive for eight months in top competition, he has been training in Madrid, waiting for an opportunity that has come to him thanks to the club with which he was key in saving Rayo a decade ago.
