Diego Costa was reportedly the subject of an audacious £66million transfer bid from Everton before finalising his move from Chelsea to Atletico Madrid this week.
The Spain international is closing in on an emotional return to his former club after Chelsea confirmed they’d reached an agreement for his transfer on Thursday.
Despite plenty of interest from the likes of AC Milan and Paris Saint-Germain during the summer, Costa made it clear he only ever wanted to make the move back to Madrid.
This means Everton were apparently unsuccessful with a surprise bid for Costa before the end of the summer transfer window, according to Marca.
There was some talk at the time that the Toffees could try to take the 28-year-old forward on a short-term loan, but reports in Spain now claim they bid as much as £66m for the player.
Costa proved a big hit in his three seasons in the Premier League, but struggled to settle off the pitch amid long-running rumours that he could look to return to La Liga.
Chelsea now hope a deal for Costa to finally leave can be concluded soon after he refused to report back to training with the Blues this season after failing to seal a summer departure.
Atletico have today tweeted pictures of Costa attending their game against Sevilla as he finalises personal terms and completes a medical before making the move official.
Chelsea 2017/18 Fixtures
Newcastle (A) - Sun May 13
The Premier League champions look set to bank around £53m for their top scorer of last season, with a replacement already brought in in the summer in the form of Alvaro Morata.
Everton had a busy summer bringing in big names like Wayne Rooney and Gylfi Sigurdsson, having lost a star striker of their own as Romelu Lukaku joined Manchester United.
While a deal for Costa seems a tad ambitious, there’s no doubt the Brazilian-born front-man could have made an ideal replacement for Lukaku to lead the line in Ronald Koeman’s side.
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