The Independent has some fantastic excerpts from the upcoming Diego Costa biography. Really excited to read this. Amazon has its release date as October 1.

quote:
His first day at Chelsea Oscar [his Brazilian team-mate] is looking for three of his team-mates. He wants to introduce them to someone. Diego Costa has arrived for his first day as a Chelsea player and he has something he wants to say. He doesn’t have much English yet, but Oscar has helped him with the words. He’s been practising a single, short sentence. Actually, a mission statement. Oscar introduces Terry, Cahill, Ivanovic and Matic. They shake hands, then Costa straightens up and delivers his pitch in heavily-accented, halting English. “I go to war. You come with me.”

quote:
The player and the person Valladolid team-mate, Alberto Marcos: “Diego’s old school – what happens on the pitch, stays on the pitch. He can have a bust-up with you and be close to killing you and then, a few hours later you’re having dinner together. It’s like he steps into another world when he plays but he never leaves the field looking to get even. He just doesn’t hold grudges.”

quote:
Taking a stand at Albacete Albacete medical assistant, Manolo Bleda: “The club decided to pay the players but not the rest of the staff. When he heard that, Diego refused to train until everyone was paid. In 35 years I have never known anyone else take a stand like that.” Eduardo Rodríguez Vellando, the Albacete club doctor: “One day the president came into the dressing room. He was going round everyone shaking their hands. Diego waited for his turn, and then kept his hands by his side and asked if the kit men had been paid. ‘I’m not shaking your hand until you pay them,’ he said.”

This post was edited on 7/30/15 at 7:58 am