Atletico Madrid striker Costa handed six-month prison sentence and fined for tax fraud

As a first-time offender, the Spain international striker will pay his adopted country compensation instead of spending time behind bars

Atletico Madrid’s Diego Costa has pleaded guilty to defrauding the Spanish state of more than €1 million (£813,000/$1,127,000) after failing to declare payments of over €5m earned from his 2014 move to Chelsea.

The striker was sentenced to six months in prison on Thursday, but Spanish law states that non-violent crimes with a punishment of under two years’ imprisonment can instead be resolved with a fine for first-time offenders.

In Costa’s case, the Brazil-born Spain international will fork out an additional payment of just over €500,000 on top of the missing €1m in order to fully satisfy the courts, with a failure to declare image rights also having come under the state’s microscope.

Costa left Atletico Madrid in July of 2014 after Chelsea agreed to meet the forward’s £32m ($40m) buy-out clause.

A divisive figure due to his common practice of football’s so-called dark arts, Costa won two Premier League titles and a League Cup during his time at Stamford Bridge, bagging a respectable 59 goals across 120 appearances.

His exit from the Blues came in rather acrimonious circumstances, with then head coach Antonio Conte having sent the player a text message telling him that he was no longer part of his plans for the west London club.