The battle among clubs and respective national selectors for players authority has been running for a long time, in fact, there have been many cases when clubs show their sincere disparity to release their in-form players for international duties while there have as well been cases where national teams call those players back in the team who have been advised to take rest by their clubs. Chelsea striker Diego Costa is one such player who was recently asked by the manager to take rest to fully recover from his long running hamstring problem but Spanish national coach selected him for the Euro 2016 qualifier which is a surprising move from La Roja. Apart from him, Vicente del Bosque also called Barcelona centre-back Gerard Pique, Valencia forward Rodrigo, and Bayern Munich left-back Juan Bernat for the Oct 19 and Oct 12 games in Slovakia, though missing Fernando Torres and Juan Mata is also noticeable. If we look at the performance of Costa in this season, he has scored eight goals in the first six league games and manager has openly advised him to rest a bit to heal his hamstring problem, yet Brazilian born declared himself fully fit after Blues 1-0 Championship league win at Sporting Lisbon last Tuesday.
Chelsea next mega showdown is with Arsenal at Stamford Bridge on Sunday and after looking at the level of fitness, it is highly likely that he would be featured in the game. Replying to repeated media queries about why Bosque has selected an adopted player when he is yet to score five goals for the adopted State, and he said, “If we are bringing Diego Costa, it is because he is fit. We never force anybody to play. They always have the all-clear from the doctors. He is playing all the games,” while adding about Rodrigo and Bernat, he said, “The performances of Rodrigo and Bernat have been good; they have passed through the under-21s. With Bernat we have considered that with his characteristics he can play at the back, or further forward on the left. Rodrigo has also played at Valencia on the right, or as a second striker. They should be players who are with Spain for many years.”
Pique, the another Spanish defender, who has been passing from his hip problem, is not sure to return to the national side especially after being ignored by his club, Bosque explained why he has to overlook Pique and said, “We are only looking at sporting matters with Pique. We look at his condition and whether he can be useful for us. We consider he is playing enough and his hip problem has improved. The reality is that there are many foreign centre-backs in La Liga. It is true that we lack options in this position.”