10 superstars who could have played for Brazil but didn’t

#2 Diego Costa (Spain)

Diego Costa played for Brazil in two games before representing Spain

Diego Costa is one of the recent and most famous players to decline the chance to play for Brazil in favour of another country. He is also the fourth player in this list to play for Spain.

Costa was born in Lagarto, Brazil but he started his professional career in Portugal before moving to Spain with Atletico Madrid. He spent many years of his career in Spain with the same club which helped him gain Spanish citizenship.

Since Brazil were the hosts of the 2014 FIFA World Cup, they didn’t have to play any qualifiers and only played friendlies before the tournament. As a result, Costa’s only two appearances for the Selecao came in friendly matches and this helped him to switch his international allegiance.

Costa cannot be blamed for wanting to play for Spain as Luiz Felipe Scolari preferred Fred and Jo over him. Ahead of the 2014 FIFA World Cup in his country of birth, he opted to play for Spain much to the anger of the people in Brazil.

The Atletico Madrid man represented Spain at two World Cups, played 24 games and has scored ten goals so far.