Diego Costa has completed a medical examination at Chelsea and he is now poised to complete his £32m transfer from Atlético Madrid. The Brazil-born striker, who is a part of the Spain squad preparing for the World Cup finals, has been identified by José Mourinho as being what Chelsea need to win the Premier League title.
The London club were four points short of last season’s champions, Manchester City, and their challenge came in spite of the lack of goals from their centre-forwards. Samuel Eto’o, Fernando Torres and Demba Ba contributed a total of 19 in the league, with Eto’o scoring nine of them. Mourinho would bemoan the shortfall at various junctures of his first season back at Chelsea.
He believes that the powerful and ruthless Costa can make the difference next time out. The 25-year-old is fresh from his break-out season in the professional game, in which he scored 27 goals in 34 league starts for Atlético, plus eight in nine in the Champions League, as his club won La Liga and were beaten by their city rivals, Real, in the European Cup final.
One of Costa’s Champions League goals came from the penalty spot against Chelsea in the semi-final second leg at Stamford Bridge, which his team won 3-1 to progress by the same scoreline on aggregate. It was Costa’s first season in the Champions League.
Chelsea were impressed with him before they saw him up close against them, despite his relative toils over the second half of the season. He had scored 23 of his goals in all competitions by 21 December, with the other 12 coming over the five months that followed. He struggled a little bit towards the end of the season with injury. Previously, he had never scored more than 10 league goals in a season.
Chelsea have paid the buy-out clause in Costa’s contract – he shares the same agent as Mourinho; Jorge Mendes – and the club are pushing ahead with the rest of their business.
It is possible that they will have further dealings with Atlético, as they have an interest in the club’s Brazilian left-back, Filipe Luís, and their Portuguese midfielder, Tiago, who previously played for Chelsea in 2004-05, during Mourinho’s first spell at Stamford Bridge. The club need a left-back to replace the departing Ashley Cole and another midfielder to replace Frank Lampard. Tiago is available on a Bosman free transfer and he and Luís would stand to smooth Costa’s integration in west London.
Atlético have agreed a deal to sign the 19-year-old forward Angel Correa from San Lorenzo in his native Argentina but they remain in the market for a more experienced option up front and Torres, who made his name at the Vicente Calderón, is under consideration for what would be an emotional homecoming.
Atlético are also interested in another Spanish striker – Roberto Soldado, who struggled at Tottenham Hotspur last season after a £26m move from Valencia. The Spanish champions announced the signing of the goalkeeper Miguel Moya from Getafe on Wednesday, increasing the likelihood that Thibaut Courtois will not be joining on loan from Chelsea for a fourth successive season.
Chelsea have already agreed a deal with Paris St-Germain to sell David Luíz for an initial £40m – the fee could rise to £50m – although the French champions have yet to confirm officially the Brazil defender’s arrival. That is only a matter of time. Mourinho likes Real Madrid’s French centre-back Raphaël Varane, while the club are also monitoring the situation of Cesc Fábregas, who could be available for £30m from Barcelona.
Source : http://www.theguardian.com/foo...
Today News: The 25 Most Valuable Soccer Players In The World
The Football Observatory at the International Centre for Sports Studies released its annual review for the 2014 season, and it contains estimated market values for the most valuable players in the five big European leagues.
The player valuations were made by a model that takes into account "age, length of contract remaining, position, player performance at club level for last and previous seasons (matches, minutes, goals, assists, passes, tackles, interceptions, etc.), results of the clubs to which players belong, as well as players' international experience and results of association represented at national A-team level."
When a player switches teams in soccer, the club buying him pays the selling team a transfer fee. This Football Observatory study estimates that transfer fee for each player.
Here's the top 25 (club and national team in parenthesis):
1. Lionel Messi (Barcelona, Argentina) — $272-317 million
2. Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid, Portugal) — $144-167 million
3. Luis Suarez (Liverpool, Uruguay) — $134-156 million
4. Eden Hazard (Chelsea, Belgium) — $103-120 million
5. Neymar (Barcelona, Brazil) — $86-99 million
6. Paul Pogba (Juventus, France) — $83-96 million
7. Gareth Bale (Real Madrid, Wales) — $80-92 million
8. Mesut Ozil (Arsenal, Germany) — $67-78 million
9. Edinson Cavani (PSG, Uruguay) — $65-76 million
10. Mario Gotze (Bayern Munich, Germany) — $64-74 million
11. Diego Costa (Atletico Madrid, Spain) — $64-74 million
12. Oscar (Chelsea, Brazil) — $63-$72 million
13. Sergio Aguero (Manchester City, Argentina) — $62-72 million
14. Isco (Real Madrid, Spain) — $56-65 million
15. Raheem Sterling (Liverpool, England) — $53-61 million
16. Ross Barkley (Everton, England) — $50-58 million
17. Thomas Muller (Bayern Munich, Germany) — $50-$58 million
18. Wayne Rooney (Manchester United, England) — $50-58 million
19. Daniel Sturridge (Liverpool, England) — $50-58 million
20. Andres Iniesta (Barcelona, Spain) — $50-58 million
21. Mario Balotelli (AC Milan, Italy) — $48-56 million
22. Romelu Lukaku (Chelsea, Belgium) — $48-56 million
23. Juan Mata (Manchester United, Spain) — $47-54 million
24. Sergio Busquets (Barcelona, Spain) — $47-54 million
Source : http://sports.yahoo.com/news/2...
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