Diego Costa confirms return to Atletico Madrid is close: 'Impasse with Chelsea close to being resolved'

The forward has been agitating for a move away from Chelsea for the majority of the summer window

Diego Costa was told earlier this year he has no future at Chelsea (Getty)

Diego Costa has released a statement confirming that his return to Atletico Madrid is close to completion, remarking that the situation ‘will now be resolved’ following an “impasse” with Chelsea.

The Spaniard has spent the summer in Brazil after being told by manager Antonio Conte that he was surplus to requirements at Stamford Bridge.

Costa has since been agitating for a return to Atletico, having made it clear at the end of last season that he would only leave Chelsea for his former club.

As revealed by The Independent, the La Liga side are now willing to offer just over £40m to secure the transfer Costa himself so desperately wants and have drawn up a detailed physical plan to return the Spaniard to peak fitness.

And in the latest comments made by the 28-year-old, as reported via Brazilian media outlet Globo, Costa has confirmed that the impasse with Chelsea is close to being resolved.

“My destination is already made. I must return to Atletico Madrid," he said in a statement.

"It turns out that there is the impasse that Chelsea does not want to release me. But I believe that this situation will be resolved now on my return to Spain.”

This follows the forward’s insistence, made in an interview with the Daily Mail, that Chelsea is treating him like a “criminal”.

He said: “I am waiting for Chelsea to set me free. Why won’t they let me go if they don’t want me?

“My desire is to go to Atletico. I’ve spoken to Chelsea director Marina Granovskaia. I said, ‘If the manager doesn’t want me, I want to go to Atletico Madrid’.

“They want me to be there training with the reserves. I wouldn’t be allowed access to the first-team dressing room and I would have no contact at all with the guys. I’m not a criminal! I don’t think it is fair after all I have done to be treated like that.”

Costa spent four years at Atletico Madrid before leaving to join Chelsea in 2014 where he made 89 league appearances for the side, scoring 52 domestic goals during this time.