It would be fair enough to question the authenticity of this story but it was revealed in the comments section of the Guardian by someone who goes by the name of Arsefan that Chelsea’s Diego Costa has helped a London-based orphanage thrive in difficult times.
The story came out after Arsenal’s 1-0 home defeat to Chelsea at the Emirates. Diego Costa scored the only goal of the match for Chelsea at the 23rd minute of the game. A few minuted before the goal, Per Mertesacker was shown the red card for sticking out a leg in order to upend the striker near Arsenal’s penalty box. Diego Costa was the protagonist of the evening as a 10 man Arsenal failed to find the net.
As Arsenal fans are raging all around and their fingers are pointed towards Costa, Arsefan has come out with this incredible story that shows a more philanthophic side to Costa’s nature.
The story goes something like this.
The philanthropic side of Diego Costa
Arsefan had been an Arsenal fan from the 70’s and claims to have seen all the “ups and downs” of the club. He and his wife now run a small orphanage on the outskirts of London and it is a very difficult job for them as they do not have a lot of financial backing. Weather conditions and the safety of the children are a major concern.
Arsefan was released from his job about 2 years ago and being of advanced age now has not looked for another. He has asked for funds but with the course of time funds have run out. Arsefan also said that most of the glamorous charities receive funds from celebrities or footballers.
Keeping the option of filing for bankruptcy alive, the man had put up fliers around London. Fliers asking for financial help. He also contacted some old friends at Arsenal and had asked them if they could look for aid from some of the players there. The players were busy and Arsefan was at his wit’s end as to how to approach them.
In October last year, after two days of putting up the fliers, he received a call. The person on the other end spoke only Spanish and Arsefan thought it might be a prank call. He then gave the phone to his mother who is of Spanish origin.
She understood Spanish and told Arsefan that it was someone asking for directions to their residence as they wanted to pay a visit. He provided the unknown caller with his address and three hours later there came a BMW car at his driveway and took a halt.
To his surprise out came Diego Costa and his teammate Willian. Costa did not mind the disgust that was writ large on Arsefan’s face and they had a conversation with Arsefan’s mother and Spanish caretaker.
Costa and Willian donated £50K each for the orphanage. The donation has helped the couple keep the orphanage running till now and he says that they are going to do well for the next three months or so.
He met Costa last Thursday when the striker gave 30 blankets for the orphanage from the Chelsea store, invited him to Lagarta where Costa supposedly runs a school for 200 and also gave him tickets for the game against Arsenal at the Emirates. Unable to attend Arsenals matches because of the high price, he had not gone to the Emirates since 2008.
Costa had asked the family to keep this between themselves but he choose to talk about it as he thinks people need to know. He read an article in the Guardian on Premier League footballers and their philanthropic work but found no mention of Diego Costa and that prompted him to tell the world this story.