He is the panto villain of the Premier League.
Everyone loves to hate Diego Costa, and none more so than Arsenal fans. His rambunctious style and combative nature make him a magnet for controversy. To say he stretches the rules on the pitch at times is an understatement.
However, it seems there may be another side to the Brazilian-born Spanish international. Following Arsenal’s defeat to Chelsea – courtesy of a Costa goal – many Gooners were unhappy with the striker for what they saw as playacting to get Per Mertesacker sent off.
Certainly there were plenty of angry comments on the Guardian’s match report for the game. However, one Arsenal supporter felt compelled to redress the balance in the Chelsea man’s favour, having experienced his kind nature first-hand.
‘Arsefan’ posted the following anecdote about Costa, and teammate Willian, coming to the rescue of his small London orphanage with both practical support and tremendous generosity…
I started following Arsenal in the 70s and I have seen all the ups and downs of this great club. Now my wife and I run an orphanage, a small one on the outskirts of London. We are not rich and it has been very hard to run the place, what with it falling to pieces from wind and rain and the safety of children at stake.
I had been let go off my job 2 years back and I’ve not had the strength in my bones to go back and search for jobs against younger people. Thus I’ve had to ask for funds more than necessary and funds have dried out mostly with more glamorous charities getting all the funding from footballers and celebrities. I had put up a few fliers in London and left it at that knowing that I’d have to file for bankruptcy sooner than later. I had contacted some of my friends at Arsenal and tried to wangle a few of my oldest friends to approach the players as a last resort. But it seemed that all the players were busy and I couldn’t get anything at all to go on and approach them.
This happened in October last year. After 2 days of my putting up fliers, I received a call from someone who spoke only Spanish. I thought it was some nut calling and gave the phone to my mother who is of Spanish descent. She said that someone was asking for the directions to come and visit. I, apprehensive and unbelieving, gave the details and never expected them to come. After 3 hours or so, a very high class car, a BMW came to our driveway. Out stepped Diego Costa and Willian. I was visibly disgusted but Diego Costa didn’t mind. They spoke primarily to my mother and the Spanish caretaker. He doesn’t speak a word of English but the goodness of his heart doesn’t need words.
They gave 50k pounds, each of them. It has kept us up and running till now and will do for the next 3 months or so. The next time I met Costa was last Thursday, when he came and gave 30 blankets from the Chelsea store. He also invited me to Lagarta where he is running a school for 200. I also got complimentary tickets to today’s game and I went to the Emirates for the first time since 2008 because I can’t afford the season ticket price nowadays.
I know that these boards have an anti-Chelsea bias but I signed on to the guardian today to tell only this even though Diego told us to keep it unknown to others. I love Arsenal. But me, my family and the 56 kids i now tender to love Diego Costa more. I wrote this earlier knowing that Arsenal would win almost surely but hell, this team has given me more grief than anything else in life.
I cried after the match as an Arsenal fan. But I was happy inside as a Diego Costa and Willian fan. I read the comments on the article about the philanthropy of PL footballers to London but I was amazed that that Diego wasn’t mentioned. I felt it was just the right time to pen this. Thank you for reading through.
