Everton offered Chelsea €75m (£66.4m) for Diego Costa towards the end of the summer but the Spaniard only wanted to return to Atletico Madrid, claims MARCA.
Chelsea confirmed in midweek they had reached a deal in principle with Atletico for the transfer of Costa for a fee believed to be in the region of €60m (£53m).
Costa has been pushing to return to Atletico since it emerged at the end of last season he was no longer part of Antonio Conte’s plans at Chelsea.
The 28-year-old refused to return to Chelsea training towards the end of the summer but is finally on the cusp of securing a return to Atletico just three years after leaving Diego Simeone’s side to move to Stamford Bridge.
However, it has now been revealed that Everton made a staggering club-record £66.4m bid to lure Costa to Goodison park only to be turned down by the Spain international, who only wanted to return to Atletico.
Everton have only scored two Premier League goals this season and Ronald Koeman has already lamented the club’s inability to sufficiently fill the void left by Romelu Lukaku, who joined Manchester United over the summer.
Costa leave Chelsea having played a huge part in two Premier League winning sides in three seasons and 52 goals scored in 89 appearances.
