Atletico Madrid's Brazilian born striker, Diego Costa this Wednesday explained his decision to choose to play international football for the Spanish national team ahead of that of his homeland.
Costa, who has dual nationality and is eligible to play for Spain after playing for 5 years in the country, signed a letter in front of a lawyer on Tuesday expressing his desire to play for Spain.
The Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) issued a communique on its website stating; "In this way, Diego Costa can play for Spain in the next games in the month of November, as long as the national coach deems it opportune," implying the man who is currently the top scorer in the BBVA Primera Liga will probably be called up by Vicente Del Bosque, who said ahead of Spain' s last matches that he had the striker in mind and that only the lack of paperwork had stopped him calling on the Brazilian.
Costa' s decision has not been well received in his homeland with Brazil coach, Felipe Scolari saying the forward had let "millions of Brazilians down," which perhaps prompted him to defend the decision in an interview on the Atletico Madrid website.
"It was a complicated decision to make for all that it means to decide between the country you were born in and the country which has given you everything, which in this case is Spain," said Costa.
"This country has given me everything that I have in live and I have special affection for it. Here I feel valued for everything that I have done and I can feel the affection of the public," he said.
Costa also addressed the issue of the hostility his decision has caused in his homeland saying that he wanted, "the people to know that at no moment am I renouncing Brazil. I don' t see it like that, it is just that here (Spain) I feel valued and I have played my entire career here," he commented, adding that he had family in Brazil and that he intended to return to live there when he hung up his boots.
"I hope the people understand and respect that," said Costa, who will probably now make his Spain debut against Angola or South Africa in the middle of next month.
