Dedworth
23rd January 2015, 12:06
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"Football needs another Eric Cantona," says The Daily Telegraph's chief sports writer, Paul Hayward. "One who turns his collar up, looks at the world like it's his ping-pong ball and says what he thinks."
The closest we have to Cantona these days is probably Zlatan Ibrahimovic - the arrogance, the swagger and the uncanny ability to shock and surprise in equal measure - but he plays in France for PSG, and we don't really see much of him.
Do we have another Cantona slightly closer to home? A player we can't help but like and are not sure why? Step forward Diego Costa...
For starters, he's not afraid to alienate an entire nation. And not just any old nation. The most football-mad country on the planet who, last year, just happened to host the most important event in the football calendar. That's right, Costa, born in Brazil, elected to turn his back on the land of his birth and represent Spain. That takes balls. Especially as he then had to play for his adopted country at the World Cup in front of a few million unhappy Brazilians.
Second, he's old school. And in England we like that. So often South American forwards arrive in the Premier League and struggle to adapt - the weather, the food, the language, the physicality - they find something to moan about. But not Diego. He's big, he's bad and he's ugly and is about as ideally suited as you can get to a Premier League centre-forward.
Thirdly, he's not flash. At Chelsea he's one of their top earners, following his £32 million move from Atletico Madrid, but you won't see him spilling out of nightclubs, smoking on the job, tweeting something insanely stupid or arriving for training in the latest model of Ferrari.
Fourth, he loves football. Costa is in the same mould as Arsenal's Alexis Sanchez and Man City's Sergio Aguero. Like the Chilien and Argentine, he plays football like he's out in the park. He wants the ball. He may not have the speed of Sanchez or Aguero but he makes up for that with raw power. And he's not afraid not get stuck in. He just wants to play.
Fifth, he's not exactly an oil painting. That may sound harsh but there's something endearing about Costa's weathered, beaten-up look. If you had to go into battle with a footballer, Diego Costa is a man you'd want by your side. And he won't back down. He almost came to blows with Liverpool's Jordan Henderson in the Anfield tunnel the other night. Yeah, good luck with that one Jordan!
And finally, he's made it to the top the hard way. He may be on the big bucks now but Costa was no 16-year-old prodigy who had everything done for him and more money than his juvenile brain knew what to do with. No. In fact, up until 16 he was still playing street football in Brazil. Costa is walking, talking proof that good things come to those who wait
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/chelsea/11362358/Why-we-should-love-Diego-Costa.html
"Football needs another Eric Cantona," says The Daily Telegraph's chief sports writer, Paul Hayward. "One who turns his collar up, looks at the world like it's his ping-pong ball and says what he thinks."
The closest we have to Cantona these days is probably Zlatan Ibrahimovic - the arrogance, the swagger and the uncanny ability to shock and surprise in equal measure - but he plays in France for PSG, and we don't really see much of him.
Do we have another Cantona slightly closer to home? A player we can't help but like and are not sure why? Step forward Diego Costa...
For starters, he's not afraid to alienate an entire nation. And not just any old nation. The most football-mad country on the planet who, last year, just happened to host the most important event in the football calendar. That's right, Costa, born in Brazil, elected to turn his back on the land of his birth and represent Spain. That takes balls. Especially as he then had to play for his adopted country at the World Cup in front of a few million unhappy Brazilians.
Second, he's old school. And in England we like that. So often South American forwards arrive in the Premier League and struggle to adapt - the weather, the food, the language, the physicality - they find something to moan about. But not Diego. He's big, he's bad and he's ugly and is about as ideally suited as you can get to a Premier League centre-forward.
Thirdly, he's not flash. At Chelsea he's one of their top earners, following his £32 million move from Atletico Madrid, but you won't see him spilling out of nightclubs, smoking on the job, tweeting something insanely stupid or arriving for training in the latest model of Ferrari.
Fourth, he loves football. Costa is in the same mould as Arsenal's Alexis Sanchez and Man City's Sergio Aguero. Like the Chilien and Argentine, he plays football like he's out in the park. He wants the ball. He may not have the speed of Sanchez or Aguero but he makes up for that with raw power. And he's not afraid not get stuck in. He just wants to play.
Fifth, he's not exactly an oil painting. That may sound harsh but there's something endearing about Costa's weathered, beaten-up look. If you had to go into battle with a footballer, Diego Costa is a man you'd want by your side. And he won't back down. He almost came to blows with Liverpool's Jordan Henderson in the Anfield tunnel the other night. Yeah, good luck with that one Jordan!
And finally, he's made it to the top the hard way. He may be on the big bucks now but Costa was no 16-year-old prodigy who had everything done for him and more money than his juvenile brain knew what to do with. No. In fact, up until 16 he was still playing street football in Brazil. Costa is walking, talking proof that good things come to those who wait
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/chelsea/11362358/Why-we-should-love-Diego-Costa.html