Report Claims Atletico-Bound Diego Costa Turned Down £66m Summer Move to Everton

Everton reportedly made a humungous offer to try and poach Diego Costa away from Chelsea this summer ahead of his eventual Atletico Madrid homecoming. Marca has

Everton reportedly made a humungous offer to try and poach Diego Costa away from Chelsea this summer ahead of his eventual Atletico Madrid homecoming.

Marca has claimed that the Toffees made a mammoth £66m bid to land the striker before August's deadline day, but Costa's desire to return to his former stomping ground prevented the Blues from luring him to Goodison Park.

Costa is on the cusp of completing a season-long loan switch to the Wanda Metropolitano before he officially rejoins his former club for a fee worth around £49m, but Everton's huge fee for the 28-year-old shows how desperate they were - and remain - to land a replacement for Romelu Lukaku.

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Blues boss Ronald Koeman spent the summer window scouring the market for a viable alternative for the burly Belgian after he joined Manchester United for £75m.

The Dutchman thought he had signed Olivier Giroud from Arsenal for a fee worth £20m, but the France international opted not to leave north London in the end and left Everton scrambling around for another option.

Everton failed to bag a new goalscorer in the end, and their profligacy in front of goal so far this term has shown how massive it was that they didn't manage to recruit someone to replace Lukaku up top.

This would have been a game-changer #EFChttps://t.co/Yd7hEjbVAS

— Everton FC News (@LivEchoEFC) September 23, 2017

Costa was tipped with potentially moving to L4 on a six-month loan before jetting off to the Spanish capital permanently in January, but Marca's report goes on to state that he refused to entertain any other offers other than the one that Los Rojiblancos had put forward.

The ex-Chelsea star had been on a self-imposed strike in Brazil after he was told that he was no longer part of Antonio Conte's plans at Stamford Bridge, and refused to return to England despite being hit with a number of fines.

Rumours of a deal being struck between the Blues and Atletico surfaced after Costa was said to have begun selling off his London-based car collection, and he is now on the verge of heading back to his adoptive homeland to become part of Diego Simeone's squad.