Atletico Madrid’s 24-year old attacker Diego Costa has been a centre of a controversy this past week with the Brazilian and Spanish football associations both fighting over his attacking talents.
However, the CBF’s (Brazilian FA) Vice-President Marco Polo del Nero said in a recent statement to the Brazilian newspaper O Estado de São Paulo that the CBF would not stand in a way of a player who wants to play for a different nation in which he is fully eligible to play for.
Unfortunately this has been a bit of a nuisance for all things in regards to the Spanish national team. Last month, Costa gained Spanish citizenship after living in the country for over five years and therefore he was eligible to switch allegiance after not playing a competitive game of football for the Brazilian national side. After giving a “verbal agreement” to the RFEF (Spanish FA) and to Vicente Del Bosque, head coach of the Spanish national squad, Costa was then going to be selected for the World Cup Qualifiers against Belarus and Georgia.
That is when the CBF interfered and claimed that it was unfair of Costa to switch national squads. They cited Chapter III, Article 8 of FIFA’s regulations where it practically says that if a player has competed in a competitive game of football (i.e. anything other than a friendly) for that nation then he is ineligible to switch allegiances.
Annoyingly for Brazil, apart from the Confederations Cup, they have not had a single minute of competitive football since the Copa America in 2011, where Costa was pretty much unknown in the world of football. Therefore they blocked Costa’s right to play for the Spanish national side temporarily, because they felt it was unfair as Brazil haven’t had an opportunity to select him for a competitive game.
Despite, Del Nero’s statement to the Sao Paulo-based newspaper, the controversy is still on-going until the CBF put forward documentation stating that Costa has never played a competitive game for Brazil at any level.
Nobody could blame the CBF for putting in the block in the first place since Costa’s rise this year has been meteoric to say the least. He scored the goal which helped Atletico beat city rivals Real Madrid to winning the Copa Del Rey trophy as well as becoming the tournament’s top scorer with eight goals as in many games. He scored 20 goals in 44 appearances for Madrid’s “second” club last season. However, Brazil decided that his league form was probably not good enough to grant a call up for the Confederations cup with only ten goals in 31 appearances at league level.
That has all changed so far in the new season. He has scored a sublime ten goals in eight games for Atletico in La Liga this season, making him the current leader in the goal scoring charts, ahead of Messi and Ronaldo who are on eight and seven respectively. Maybe his rise to becoming one of the league’s best attacking talents is not that much of a surprise considering Falcao’s departure from the club. With the Colombian sensation moving to AS Monaco, it has allowed Costa to have a more advanced role at Atletico and with the support of veteran forward David Villa then it is no wonder that Costa is scoring as many goals as he has done so far.
In fact Diego Costa’s new found Spanish citizenship opens up more options in the transfer market this winter. The Spanish Primera Division has a ruling which states that no club squad can have more than three players from outside the European Union. Costa was one of those players alongside Brazilian Joao Miranda and Uruguayan Jose Maria Gimenez, but Costa’s Spanish citizenship means Diego Simeone can seek a player outside of the EU.
It is then unsurprising that Vicente Del Bosque approached him about playing for Spain at next year’s World Cup in his home country. Spain, despite winning a World Cup and two European Championships in the last five years, has had a drought in striking talent. Torres, Negredo and Soldado were all unimpressive at last year’s Euros or this year’s Confederations Cup.
At last year’s European Championships, Spain heavily relied on a “False 9” formation which featured Cesc Fabregas filling the most advanced role; such is Del Bosque’s lack of trust in Spain’s attacking talent. It is evident in Spain’s latest squad for the World Cup Qualifiers, with Villa, Pedro, Negredo and Jesus Navas all called up for the squad whilst Torres and Soldado were deemed not good enough for the squad. Apart from Villa, neither have a significant pedigree to be classed as a goalscorer for the country. And even then Jesus Navas and Pedro are not strikers, which raise concerns about who could be Spain’s future number nine. Therefore it is understandable why Del Bosque would be drawn into attracting Costa to switch national sides.
If the CBF were more relentless in keeping the services of Diego Costa then he could have been a starter for the boys in yellow next summer. Judging by how Scolari played his Brazil squad, Costa would have probably been the lone striker, replacing Fred as the number nine with Neymar and Hulk supporting him on the wings.
However, that will not be the case as Costa looks set to be part of Spain’s national squad for years to come. As a consequence of this fiasco, the ultimate loser here is Diego Costa, who will miss out on invaluable international experience and his first taste of competitive football on the international stage. It would have been good preparation for the World Cup next year (if he makes the squad of course) if he had some sort of competitive experience in him. It appears that his talent has cost him international experience… an odd case for sure and this is a story worth keeping tabs on.
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