Why Atletico Madrid Made the Right Move Picking Kevin Gameiro over Diego Costa

Kevin Gameiro sat in front of the Spanish press, but the first questions put to him were about someone else.

Credit the Frenchman for not mentioning the elephant in the room; Atletico Madrid’s new forward calmly and confidently explained why they were looking at him and not Diego Costa.

“The most important thing is that I am the one here speaking in front of you,” he said.

“The club chose me, and I am going to give them everything I have.”

And so all the talk of a move to bring Costa back to the Vicente Calderon—which was really all just talk, according to Dermot Corrigan for Unibet—can now drift away.

It is Gameiro, Sevilla’s 68-goal striker over the past three years—seasons during which he remarkably won three successive Europa League titles—who is the new man in the Spanish capital.

Sure, on the face of it, €32 million for a 29-year-old forward who didn’t even make his country’s Euro 2016 squad is an eye-watering piece of business. Yet the European transfer market has taken that long-awaited turn into Crazy Town this summer, and even taking that into account, this looks to be the right move for both club and player.

In turning to Gameiro and not Costa, Diego Simeone and Atletico have chosen to continue pushing forward by refusing to look back.

Costa might have been a fantastic forward for them once upon a time, but that time has passed.

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Indeed, the current Chelsea man was another forward who found himself omitted from his country’s Euro 2016 squad this summer.

After struggling throughout last season, you suspect that it’s going to take a return to his sparkling 2014/15 form if he’s to gain the trust of his new Stamford Bridge boss Antonio Conte, who is still reportedly chasing Everton’s Romelu Lukaku, as per Simon Jones of the Daily Mail.

The big Belgian and the big Brazilian-turned-Spaniard can be described as similar players, but Gameiro is not one of their type. He is a player who is far more suited to what Simeone is trying to create at Atletico.

Quickness of thought and deed around the penalty area are what has got Gameiro—the scorer of 164 goals over a career that has taken him to Strasbourg, Lorient, Paris Saint-Germain and Sevilla—to where he is today. He is the new forward at a club that has been lacking a man up front ever since the Jackson Martinez experiment was abandoned halfway through last season.

His anticipation and movement around the box is what gets him the vast majority of his goals, with an example coming with the strike that turned the Europa League final against Liverpool on its head in May. It was his final goal for Sevilla.

He’s a poacher, a finisher and a player who can be relied upon to make the most of the good work his Atletico teammates will do around the penalty area. In the tighter games with few chances, he’ll take one, and that isn’t a feeling you’ve been getting with Costa lately.

Off the pitch, it is a signing that makes sense, too.

Costa would have been treated like a returning hero had he, two years after jumping ship for Chelsea, made a return to the club where he made his name.

Atletico fans will always hold a special place in their hearts for the forward’s robust, rampaging, raging-bull-in-a-china-shop routine, and rightly so. There might well come a time in the future when Atleti welcome him back with open arms, but that time doesn’t seem right now.

This is, remember, a team that once again came close to winning La Liga and the Champions League in 2015/16, achievements that can often get overlooked due to the magnetic pull of attention enjoyed by their two main domestic rivals.

It makes sense not to rock the boat too much and to bring in players who combine those two key elements of hunger and quality.

Gameiro is a player who strikes you as though he is always striving for recognition and for a place in the conversation when it comes to the best around.

This was probably forged during two years at PSG between 2011 and 2013 when, having finally got his move to the most glamorous club in his homeland, the forward let himself down somewhat, failing to find his best form in a team that was in a state of flux as the Qatar money rolled in.

This up-and-down form (he scored 11 Ligue 1 goals in 2011/12 and eight in 2012/13) meant that his head was always on the chopping block once the cash started to flow. Sure enough, he was eventually squeezed out as the likes of Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Edinson Cavani touched down in the French capital.

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Perhaps that relative failure has contributed to a disappointing international career which has featured just eight caps, one goal and no appearances since late 2011. If there is a hunger there, it is one that he is trying desperately to feed.

That same sense of dissatisfaction with his lot seems to fuel Simeone, too. The pair could be seen as the perfect partnership as Gameiro prepares to line up alongside Antoine Griezmann, another Frenchman who has had to strive for recognition, and indeed Fernando Torres, a player long since written off by many.

This just looks to be good fit, and Gameiro’s goals will play a key part in the challenges which lie ahead for an Atletico team which is shaping up nicely.

“I'm really looking forward to the season ahead,” he told that same introductory press conference once the questions about Costa had stopped.

“This is a great club and can't wait for the season ahead challenging for the league title and Champions League, and I'd love to win a trophy.”

Costa already did that with Atletico. Now it is the new man’s turn.