The enduring fracas between Chelsea and Diego Costa has claimed its first casualty as Spain National football team coach, Julen Lopetegui has handed David Villa, a place in his squad for the world cup qualifiers against Italy and Liechtenstein at the expense of Diego Costa. Villa who is Spain's all-time top scorer with 59 goals in 97 appearances currently plays for New York City FC in Major League Soccer.
He won the Euro 2008 and the World Cup in 2010 with La Roja before retiring from international football three years ago after his country were eliminated at the group stage of the World Cup in 2014.
Costa refused to return to Chelsea after missing the preseason tour. The player who is currently in Brazil accused Chelsea of treating him like a criminal and attempting to send him to the Chinese Super League despite his desire to return to Spain and reunite with his former club, Atletico Madrid.
Chelsea had fined him two weeks wages to compel him to resume training at Stanford Bridge. The Player vowed not to return claiming that there were plans to relegate him to the reserve team, barring him access to the first team players.
Julen Lopetegui's decision to sideline him from his squad may be because of lack of fitness, since the player has not played any competitive game in months.
