Diego Costa has told SFR Sport he is happy at Chelsea but doesn’t like London, further fuelling speculation that he will leave Stamford Bridge in the summer.
Costa has been regularly linked with a move away since joining Chelsea from Atletico Madrid for £32 million in 2014, and said last month that he tried to force though a return to his former club last year.
The Spain international was dropped by Chelsea coach Antonio Conte in January following a training ground row with a fitness coach over a back injury at the time of a lucrative offer from Chinese Super League club Tianjin Quanjian.
Costa, 28, has refused to rule out the possibility of a move there at the end of the season and said:
“I have two years of my contract left.
“I am always very honest with the people around me. I always say that I am very happy at Chelsea.
“The club do a lot for me, the fans, my teammates and this is a winning team, which motivates you to be there a long time more.
“I’m happy at Chelsea. But I’m not saying I’m happy with my life in London, because that is something totally different — the one thing has nothing to do with the other.”
Costa said the views of those who see him as a confrontational and indisciplined player did not bother him, adding:
“Sincerely, I couldn’t care less.
“The people who do not know me can think whatever they want. It is not going to change how I am.
“I am a good kid, a happy kid. If the people who know me said anything different, said I was a bad kid, that would hurt me. Wherever I have gone I have always made friends, always been loved.
“So if the people think that it is due to the media, who speak a lot of s—, always talk nonsense. That is where that image comes from.”
Costa has scored 18 goals in 34 appearances in all competitions to help propel Chelsea to a seven-point lead at the top of the Premier League but has struck just four times in 12 games since the January incident.
