Chelsea complete £32 signing of Diego Costa

Diego Costa

Spanish hitman Diego Costa has signed a 5-year contract with Chelsea and the deal was finally sealed on the activation of his release clause this afternoon.

The former Atletico Madrid striker’s highly-anticipated move to Stamford Bridge is perfectly timed for the player to join Jose Mourinho’s Blues on their pre-season friendly fixtures.

Chelsea have officially announced completion of the transfer on the club website and a short statement was released from the player:

“I am very happy to sign for Chelsea,” said Costa, “everybody knows it is a big club in a very competitive league, and I am very excited to get started in England.”

The west Londoners had to pay a hefty fee for the Spaniard but one only needs to look at his statistics to see why Atletico held out for the £32M price tag they slapped on him, as soon as big-spenders Chelsea registered their interest.

On paper, Costa is exactly the type of player Blues boss Mourinho has been dreaming about at Chelsea. Last season he scored 28 goals in Atletico’s La Liga campaign and it is without question the Portuguese chief will hope to have finally acquired his ultimate goal-scorer following a season of frustration over Fernando Torres, Samuel Eto’o and Demba Ba – who scored just 19 league goals collectively.

The Spanish ace is Chelsea’s third summer newcomer along with fellow Spaniard Cesc Fabregas – who signed from Atletico’s La Liga rivals Barcelona for £30M, and German midfielder Mario Pasalic – who arrived from Hajduk Split for an undisclosed fee.