Diego Costa acknowledged that during recording his signing video for new team Wolves, he was “scared to death.”
Due to their striker shortage, Bruno Lage has brought in the former Chelsea player till the end of the campaign.
Sasa Kalajdzic, their £15 million summer acquisition, suffered a catastrophic knee injury on his first play.
Wolves unveiled the 33-year-old on Monday with a very unusual signing video. With the tagline “Diego is a wolf,” Costa was shown holding on to a chained three real wolves.
The striker, who was born in Brazil and represented Spain at the international level, is known for being a formidable opponent.
But even he acknowledged that handling the creatures frightened him.
“I was scared to death,” he told the club’s website. “Holding that chain I kept thinking, ‘What if this wolf thinks about jumping on top of me? ’ and then the three of them did.
“Because the lady training them kept calling them, asked them to move around a little and the dog, the wolves didn’t do a single thing. And I thought, ‘If they’re not doing anything with the trainer, if they come’…when they came and smelled my foot, I knew I was done for.
“I was a little scared then. Those were wolves, not dogs. It was a cool experience but not a very comfortable one. I have five dogs, but they’re not wolves!”
Wolves have only won one of their first six games, but they have been among the league’s most reliable teams since being re-promoted to the Premier League in 2018.
Costa in explaining his decision to join the Premier League club, said: “It’s a first-class club with very good players who know how to play football, and having the chance to play in the Premier League again was the main thing.
“Obviously, the club influenced my decision, especially knowing I will be able to adapt a lot more easily here not only from a technical point of view, the quality of the players but also from the fact that a lot of the players are Portuguese and that will make my transition that much smoother.
“It wasn’t in the best terms possible on accounts of a player’s injury which, unfortunately, I can only wish him nothing but the best for him.
“But when he [Bruno Lage] told me about returning to the Premier League since this a championship I have related to quite a bit, always liked it and followed. No matter how much I enjoyed playing in Madrid, I felt discouraged, but this motivated me. It lit that fire within me.”
Diego Costa
Diego da Silva Costa, better known by his playing name Diego Costa, was born on October 7, 1988. He is a professional footballer who currently plays as a striker for Wolverhampton Wanderers of the Premier League and the Spanish national team.
Costa started playing football at his home in Brazil before transferring to Braga in 2006 at the age of 17. Despite spending time on loan at Penafiel, he never featured for the team. The following year, he signed with Atlético Madrid.
He spent time on loan at Braga, Celta Vigo, and Albacete during the following two seasons. His performance led to a 2009 transfer to Real Valladolid, a fellow La Liga team, where he lasted one season and was their top scorer before returning to Atlético Madrid.
Atlético’s Costa struggled to keep him in a regular starting position, so he spent additional time on loan, this time at Rayo Vallecano, where he ended up becoming the team’s top scorer that year.
Costa returned to Atlético in 2011 with a bigger role. He developed as a goal scorer and contributed to the team’s victories in the Copa del Rey, La Liga, and the UEFA Super Cup.
Numerous top clubs were impressed by his play, and in 2014 Costa was traded to Premier League club Chelsea for a sum of €35 million (£32 million). Costa won three trophies while residing in London, including two Premier League championships and a League Cup.
After falling out with manager Antonio Conte in 2018, Costa moved to Atlético Madrid in a club-record deal costing an initial €56 million, where he won another UEFA Super Cup and the UEFA Europa League.
Costa holds dual citizenship in Spain and Brazil. In 2013, he participated in two games for Brazil before announcing his desire to play for Spain after obtaining citizenship in the country in September.
In the months since his March 2014 debut, he has amassed 24 caps for Spain, scored 10 goals, and represented them in both the 2014 and 2018 FIFA World Cups.
Costa, who is renowned for having a fiery disposition, has received criticism and punishment for multiple altercations with opponents.
