Mourinho: Diego Costa Should Not Play for Spain

Chelsea FC manager Jose Mourinho spoke out against Diego Costa playing for Spain because he believes that only players born in the country should play for the national team. In an interview with Spanish paper AS, Mourinho was critical of Spanish team coach Vincente Del Bosque for calling up Costa just because he has a Spanish passport despite being born and raised in Brazil. Spain seems to be in a bit of a striker drought and the Brazil-born Costa had only featured for Brazil in a friendly so is not tied to the Seleccao. Costa received a call up to the Spain squad for a friendly next week so is still not tied to La Furia Roja either, but according to Brazil coach Felipe Scolari, he will not be welcomed back to Brazil if he changes his mind.

Mourinho’s comments:

"“It’s allowed because it can happen, but if I was the president of the Portuguese Football Federation, I would only want Portuguese coaches. When one day I’m the national team coach I will only select players who were born in my country. That is for sure. Or, if they weren’t born in my country, then their parents must have a connection. I would never select a player because he has my country’s passport, thinking that we can make the team stronger. For me, the national team selection means a lot. The national team is Portugal, not Portugal and friends. Portugal is for Portuguese people”."

What Mourinho said was more about nationality and not race or ethnicity which makes his comments far less controversial than one would think. Especially for a player like Costa who only moved to Spain to play football and not because of his parents or some other connection. One of the primary issues is that Brazil is also in the midst of a striker crisis and Costa would be a great fit but he has taken his lack of selections as a slight rather than a motivation to improve. If Costa does indeed feature for Spain at the World Cup in Brazil, he will surely receive a quite hostile reception.

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