London Aug 17 (IANS) Chelsea s Spanish forward Diego Costa on Thursday confirmed his intention to return to Spanish football giants Atletico Madrid during the current summer transfer window.
The 28-year-old Spain international had fallen out of favour with Chelsea s Italian coach Antonio Conte who reportedly asked him at the end of last season via a text message to search for another club reports Efe.
"My destination is already made " Costa said in a statement. "I must return to Atletico Madrid."
"It turns out that there is the impasse that Chelsea does not want to release me " Costa added. "But I believe that this situation will be resolved now on my return to Spain."
The Brazilian-born forward has been in Brazil since last season ended but the English Premier League s defending champions have expressed their wish to have him join their current training sessions.
Costa s attorney Ricardo Cardoso confirmed last week his client s intention to present a transfer request to the Blues.
Cardoso did not rule out taking legal action against Chelsea to ensure his departure from Stamford Bridge.
Chelsea who paid 32 million pounds ($41.2 million) to sign Costa in 2014 from Atletico seeks a 50-million pound (around $64 million) bid to let him leave which is 26 million pounds ($33 million) more than what the La Liga side is offering.
If a deal were to be finally reached Costa would not be able to play with Atletico during the first half of the season due to FIFA s ban that prevents the Spanish club from registering new players until January 2018 so he would presumably be transferred on loan to another club in the interim.
--IANS
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