Douglas Costa caused a lot of commotion in Brazil in the night from Thursday to Friday. The attacker provocatively cheered his own fans when he scored 4-2 on behalf of Grêmio against Atlético Mineiro in the Série A. Although Grêmio eventually took a 4-3 win over the national champions, he was relegated o Imortal Tricolor for the third time in club history from the highest Brazilian league. In 2017, the club won the Copa Libertadores.
Last weekend Grêmio already spilled points against Corinthians (1-1), which meant relegation for the team of Costa and associates. They depended on the result of direct competitor Juventude, which itself managed to beat Corinthians (1-0) on the last day of play. After the penultimate match day, Costa already saw the mood, and he submitted a request to the club not to play against Atlético Mineiro because of a wedding in Rio de Janeiro. The wish of the 33-year-old attacker was not honored Grêmio, and that seems to have led to a lot of frustration.
Douglas Costa fez gol e provocou a torcida do Gremio ??pic.twitter.com/jwm7pMfKKt
— out of context brasileirão (@oocbrsao) Dec 10, 2021
Just days before the final game of the season, Costa had removed all of his Grêmio-related photos from Instagram. It didn’t stop at that ‘statement’. After he nicely scored the 4-2 against Atlético Mineiro as a substitute, he rushed towards his own audience. He waved provocatively at the club’s fans and then turned his back on the crowd, pointing to his number 10 jersey. On one of the darkest days in club history, Costa caused much anger and misunderstanding from Grêmio.
Costa was taken over from Juventus on loan in May. The lease of the left leg will continue until mid-2022, although it is doubtful whether he will still act on behalf of Grêmio. The past period at the Brazilian club was certainly not an undivided success. Costa played a total of 26 league games, scoring three goals and providing two assists. In 2008 Costa signed his first professional contract with Grêmio, after which he left for Shakhtar Donetsk in 2010. Five years later, the winger made the switch to Bayern Munich for thirty million euros. After a few rental periods, Costa settled at Juventus in 2018 for an amount of forty million euros.
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