Diego Costa was the only way to survive in the rough and tumble street football which moulded the personality of the Chelsea striker, earning him nicknames like “The Beast” and “The Tasmanian Devil”.
Costa insists he is now a reformed character from the player who collected 58 yellow and seven red cards before he joined Chelsea from Atletico Madrid for £32million last summer.
Eight bookings and a three-match ban for stamping on Liverpool’s Emre Can this season hardly suggest the “Devil” has become an angel.
Former Atletico director of football Jesus Garcia Pitarch, who was responsible for taking Costa to Spain, described him as “blood and fire”.
Pitarch says: “He needed a paternal hand. You had to have patience and understand certain behaviour. He had to be educated. He’s a player who always shows his face and his enthusiasm is contagious. Diego, who developed in the street and played football there, has this inside him: ‘He who plays against me is my enemy, even if he’s my friend before and after becomes it again.’
