Atlético: No Chelsea Costa bid

Atlético Madrid President Enrique Cerezo has denied receiving an offer from UK team Chelsea for striker Diego Costa.

Chelsea, who were recently knocked out of the Champions League by Spain’s La Liga leaders Atlético at the semi-finals stage, had emerged as front-runners to sign the Spain international.

However, it seems that Costa may not be moving to Mourinho’s team after all, with officials at Vicente Calderon insisting that there has been no official approach for the Brazilian player.

Costa, 25, has been in superb form this season, with his 27 La Liga goals helping his team compete for a Spanish Primera Division and Champions League double.

Cerezo told Spanish media reporters:

“It’s not the time to talk about signings. There are three very important games ahead.

“Diego Costa was signed when he was 18, a boy, and nobody guessed what he would be today.”

Asked directly about the possibility of a Chelsea deal, he said: “Chelsea? We don’t want to know when these games are so important. We don’t want to destabilise the team and we can talk about this later.

“I can say that there is nothing, not officially, from another club to one of our players. They’re not on their way to another team.

“If the question is ‘is there a deal for Costa’ then we haven’t heard anything.”