I guess we should have known. After all, Diego Costa is the chief prankster of the Chelsea dressing room. Well, co-chief prankster, now that David Luiz is back.
In any case, what we thought was Diego Costa inadvertently confirming that Kenedy is about to head out on loan to Flamengo, actually just turns out to be Costa trolling Kenedy, and in turn, trolling the rest of us who were only privy to half the conversation.
Parece que Diego Costa se descuidou e falou demais numa live do Kenedy. pic.twitter.com/Ed96jN1T9H
— Na Redonda (@FutNaRedonda) January 17, 2017
Costa left his comment on Kenedy’s live Instagram video and that’s the screenshot that started to make the rounds around Twitter and the web. But it turns out that Kenedy replied to that comment live on the air, so to speak, and that comment went something along the lines of “[FUN] Mengão; I am Xerém”, where Mengão is a nickname for Flamengo and Xerém is a nickname for Fluminense, Kenedy’s old club. Fla and Flu are two of the biggest rivals in world football, so the response is understandable, as is Costa’s joke. And like all good practical jokes, it’s not entirely baseless given the earlier speculation from ESPN Brasil of Kenedy going to Flamengo on loan.
UPDATE: Kenedy has now denied “speaking badly” of another club while confirming his commitment to Chelsea.
Long story short, Costa has trolled us all and Kenedy’s going nowhere. At least not yet, and certainly not to Flamengo.
In fact, Flamengo president Eduardo Bandeira de Mello has claimed there is “absolutely nothing” to this story. Whether they’re interested in Kenedy is perhaps up for debate, but there’s no loan happening at the moment. Given Kenedy’s response to Costa’s comment, there probably won’t be nor should there be one. (If Kenedy is to go out on loan, he really needs to stay in England.)
NADA DE KENEDY! No #expedientefutebol, Eduardo Bandeira de Mello negou que o @Flamengo esteja negociando com o atacante do @ChelseaFC. ⚫️ pic.twitter.com/Qe5B6ttXfO
— Central FOX Brasil (@CentralFoxBR) January 17, 2017
What else have you been trolling us about, Diego?
(h/t: Thanks to ‘JessicaFrota’ for all the links and info)