Diego Costa breaks into a smile, and then a laugh. It is not the first and certainly not the last time he does so during this interview, the first he has conducted since he signed for Chelsea last summer, and which is briefly interrupted by Jose Mourinho after he spots the striker. “This beautiful face sells millions,” the Chelsea manager warmly declares as he sweeps in and out of the room at the club’s training ground.
It is Friday lunchtime and Costa is certainly in the news, even if the outrage has been excessive. Confirmation has just come through that he will serve a three-match ban – which started with the Premier League table-topping encounter against Manchester City – after he was charged with violent conduct for standing on Emre Can’s ankle during last Tuesday’s high-intensity, brilliant Capital One Cup semi-final against Liverpool at Stamford Bridge.
Suddenly Costa, who contested the charge, is serious. “As far as what happened on Tuesday, the main thing is when I get home I can go home and I can go to sleep knowing that I’ve not done anything wrong, because I never meant to do that and it was not on purpose,” he explains.
“And you can clearly see that on the video. But it is a suspension. I have to accept that, I have to take it. Obviously I feel sad because I’m not going to be able to help the team, to play. But I have accept it and respect it.
“I’m not saying I’m an angel. I’m no angel. You can see that. But every time I play I will play the same way because that’s the way I am. That’s what I need to do in order to support my family. That’s my bread and butter, also that’s what I need to do for this club and for the fans of this club, for the supporters and for all the people involved in this club.
“On the pitch I will always be like that. That’s my character and I will always compete and compete - always. I’m a different guy off the pitch, as you can see, but on the pitch I will not change. And I want to say this again: you can look at the video and interpret it however you want but I know when I get home I can sleep in peace because I know I didn’t mean to do it.”
Costa is no angel. But he certainly is no devil either. He is, however, a fierce competitor, a warrior and leader on the pitch – something of a throwback of a centre-forward, a striker with an indomitable spirit and desire to scrap for every inch. And win. “On the pitch I transform myself, I really, really want to win,” Costa says.
“I want to be competitive, I want to run all over - I want to win. I can accept defeat but I love to win and be competitive. It is my job and I love it. I train all week just to play for 90 minutes. I love playing games and so during those 90 minutes, it’s always 100 per cent.
“You have to see how many times have I injured someone. Never. I’ve never injured another colleague, another player on purpose. Yes, I’ve had loads of incidents maybe even more (when I played) in Spain. But that’s the way I play. I’m not going to change the way I play because I got banned for a few games now.
“I’m always loyal, I always go 100 per cent, I always go on the limit but I think the people that think that I am violent player it’s because they interpret football a different way; they see it in a different way. Back in the old days there used to be way more contact and a lot of things that were permitted. These days everyone is looking at it and I don’t think that is good for the game.
“I have a go at defenders and they have a go at me. We argue. Whatever happens on the pitch stays on the pitch. After the game I shake hands with the defender. Job done, I go home, he goes home. We’re all mates. It’s all good. That’s how I see football. That’s how I play football. I’m not going to change it – football is a contact sport.”
Flashpoint: This clash with Emre Can saw Diego Costa banned for three games
It is also a game that he loves. “I am where I am today for the love of the game,” the 26-year-old says.
Loyalty and love.
They are two words that Costa uses often during this interview, conducted in Spanish through a translator, as he proves to be engaging and funny company. There is mischief in Costa’s eyes as he is asked about being the ‘joker’ at Chelsea – Mourinho revealed that – and he tells of the prank he recently pulled on Marcelo, a Brazilian physio at the club who, along with Mourinho, had tricked him.
“Obviously I couldn’t do anything to get back at Mourinho, because he’s the manager,” Costa laughs. “So I got together with all the lads, with Filipe Luis, with Willian, with Ramires, with all of them. We were in a hotel and the physio was not in his room as he was working with the players. I managed to get hold of his (room) card, opened his room…” And turned it upside down.
Such camaraderie means much to Costa. “I’ve always been that way, that’s the way I am,” he says. “I don’t do things for people to think that I am funny, that’s really the way I am. It comes naturally. I’ve always liked to joke with every club I’ve been in with all my team-mates because it’s where we work and we spend a lot of time together, more time than even with your family. So I do like to joke around – but I’m not the only one. There’s a few jokers in the dressing room. Didier Drogba is a big one and (Eden) Hazard as well.
“I think it’s very, very important because you can have the best players in the world all together but if there is no bond, if they don’t get along together, if there’s no group you cannot achieve anything. A great example of that is what happened at (his previous club) Atletico Madrid last season (when they won the Spanish league and reached the Champions League Final).
“We had a group which was brilliant. We were all mates for real - on and off the pitch. We solved all our problems within the dressing room. Nothing ever went out into the press or anyone else. We all fought for each other and for the club, we all defended each other as mates and that’s why we achieved what we achieved.
Club man: Diego Costa has likened team spirit at Atletico Madrid to Chelsea's
“Here, it is very similar. We have a great bond. For example, there are great players like Didier Drogba. Well, I don’t have to say what he was or what he is. For example, I’m playing now in his place but he would never be moody or anything like that. Same with Ramires. We all go in the same direction. And that’s the only way in order to succeed. We all want the best for the club.
“We have young players here. It’s a very competitive squad. Everyone wants to play, everyone goes hard and that keeps it better for all of us. We have people like John Terry, who is our captain, who has been great with me – not only with me but with all the new guys who are coming in the club. And that sense of unity, that’s how you win things and that’s the direction we’ve been going in.”
To understand Diego Costa fully you have to understand his background, his upbringing and what motivates him. You also have to understand how highly-valued and how loved he is by the team-mates and managers at all the clubs he has played for and how the public image of him simply does not square with his character. But first you have to understand where he has come from.
Mourinho had an evocative phrase. “Behind the sunset,” is where, Mourinho says, this “humble guy’s” home-town can be found: “You want to arrive there but it is difficult to arrive.”
Yellow fever: Diego Costa turns out for Brazil - before he committed his future to Spain
Costa is from Lagarto in north-east Brazil, a relatively tiny city with a population of just 100,000 in Sergipe, the smallest state in the vast, chaotic country and in the nordeste, the most impoverished region, along the Atlantic Coast. And he is immensely proud of those roots. “It’s a little town up north, close to Salvador, close to Bahia,” Costa explains. “It’s small and I’m very proud of my home-town. The weather is nice and I love going back there. Every time I have a holiday, I will go there. It’s where my family still live, where they are based and I enjoy, very much, going back there.”
Football became his passion. “In Brazil, if you have a son, the first thing you give him is a football,” Costa laughs. “That’s the first gift - so my dad was no different. I started playing football on the streets, I grew up playing football on the streets with my friends and that’s why I was brought up the way I was. That’s the school I had – the street football.’
Not that he neglected his academic studies. His father – Jose de Jesus – was so football-obsessed that he named Diego after Diego Maradona (even though he is Argentinean – “obviously there is a big rivalry (between the two nations) but there is a player who is a such a great player that you have to admire, you have to respect that,” Costa says) – and named his eldest son Jair after the quick, powerful Brazilian winger, Jairzinho, who was in the 1970 World Cup winning team.
Namesakes: Diego Costa was named after Diego Maradona
But Costa’s mother, Josileide, was even more formidable and knew that school mattered. “In order to be able to play football I had to behave because every time my mum asked for something I had to do it – then she would agree that I would be able to go and play football which is what I liked,” Costa says. “So I had to do that and get good grades in school, behave and do everything my mum wanted in order to be able to be free and go and play football.”
The games on the streets of Lagarto were epic and, occasionally, brutal – stretching for hours and long into the sun-baked afternoons, involving all ages. Men and boys. Costa loved it. “I became used to playing with guys who were older than me so it was not only about playing football but also about being street-smart as well,” he says, offering another insight into his style. “You had to not only be able to do all the tricks but to be able to shield the ball, use your body. You had to know how to be able to play on the streets because they were different. We had our own rules over there and that’s the way it was in order to survive. But what mattered was scoring goals and winning.
“Most games ended up all right but some of them didn’t! The worst thing was when I played against my brother. We could not play against each other because we always had a ‘beef’. So basically we had to end up playing on the same team.”
Feel the love: Diego Costa milks the adulation of the Chelsea fans
Costa loved the game – but was never, he says, “obsessed” by it. “I had my dreams,” he explains. “I never wanted to be a professional footballer. Yes, I loved the game; I loved playing. But you have to understand that where I come from is such a small, tiny town that there were not many opportunities.
“There are great players there but people do not see them because they do not have the opportunities. So I left my home-town when I was 15 and I went to Sao Paulo and went to work for my uncle (Jarminho) at his store. Basically I did not want to play football any more. I wanted to earn my own money and support myself and not depend on my parents anymore.
“But my uncle was also very passionate about football. He was a great player, he never played professionally, but he was a great player and at the store in Sao Paulo a lot of people used to come by. People like agents, people involved in the football environment. And he would say ‘I’ve got a nephew, he’s a great player, you have to see him’. So I ended up going to a team in Sao Paulo for some trials and I passed, I made the team and that is where it all started.”
That team was called Barcelona. Not that Barcelona but Barcelona Esportivo Capela, a club in the favelas of southern Sao Paulo which was set up to help steer street children away from drugs, the gangs and guns.
Making the transition from street football – Costa never had any formal club coaching as a child, never attended an academy – to a professional club must have difficult? Again he laughs. “There was not a big difference with that side!” he says. “But it was professional, I had my professional ‘licence’ as a player. The biggest difference was off the pitch. It was professional in that we had to train every day, we had certain schedules and timetables. All the players were young because the owners of the club wanted young players so they could sell them to sign for bigger clubs later on. It was a great experience, I used to live there with the rest of the players and learnt a lot from them.’
The money helped. “I was one of the ones who got a bigger cheque! About hundred quid a month which was good,” Costa says. “I was only 15. But obviously when you are just 15 years old you don’t care that much about money you just want to play for the love of the game. I am where I am today for the love of the game. Obviously once you are a professional you have got other responsibilities – you have family to take care of, people who depend on you and I’ve got a large family and, as I am doing well now, I will do everything I can to help them. I will always help my family.”
From Barcelona Costa was taken to Europe by the super-agent Jorge Mendes. There were seven clubs – in just eight years – as he worked to establish himself, overcoming injury and adversity, before arriving at Chelsea as a £32million signing from Atletico; and as one of the most formidable strikers in world football. He has made a significant difference to Mourinho’s team with his goals, his team-work, his friendshio, his character, his leadership, his intensity and that formidable will to win. It has been some journey up to this point.
Electric blue: Diego Costa's goals have fuelled Chelsea's season
“Obviously when I started I always tried to focus on having short-term goals because sometimes when you have a massive objective or a goal like when you play in the fourth league (in Brazil) and you want to play in the Champions League you might get confused in your head, you might go and take the wrong path,” Costa explains.
“So I have always tried to concentrate during my career on every year becoming a little bit better than the year before and growing and growing slowly and focusing on short-term goals. Now I am where I am. And I am very grateful because it’s the best thing.
“People might say about the money being involved but the pleasure you get from playing at this level, playing in the Champions League is the best thing ever. Winning the Spanish league, achieving glory with a club and with your team-mates and seeing all the fans and how passionate they are about it and everything then you just want to play at this level and remain at this level as long as you can and among the best and to push yourself really, really hard.” Push himself, push his team-mates and push Chelsea as they aim to win trophies this season.
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