Football has a strange way of folding back on itself, doesn't it One minute you are watching Douglas Costa skinning full backs in the Champions League...
Football has a strange way of folding back on itself, doesn't it One minute you are watching Douglas Costa skinning full backs in the Champions League for Juventus, the next you are reading about his latest career pivot. GoalZaza can confirm that the Brazilian winger has formally left Serie D side Chievo and will now link up with Mario Balotelli at Saudi Pro League outfit Al Ittifaq. It is a move that raises eyebrows not for its ambition, but for the peculiar path it traces back through the lower leagues of Italian football.Costa's stint at Chievo was always an oddity, a former Old Lady star dropping down to the fourth tier to keep his fitness ticking over. Now he trades the modest pitches of Italian non league football for the petrodollar sheen of the Middle East. And he does so alongside Balotelli, a striker who continues to defy straightforward categorisation. The pair share a history from their Inter Milan days over a decade ago, and while neither is the player they were in 2010, their combined flair could offer Al Ittifaq something genuinely unpredictable in the final third.Let's be honest about what this transfer represents. It is not about tactical flexibility or a low block system. It is about a veteran winger, still only 34, who possesses a wand of a left foot but has struggled for consistency since leaving Turin. Al Ittifaq are getting a player who can still produce a moment of magic from a dead ball or a sharp cut inside. The real question is whether his legs can handle the transitional demands of the Saudi league, which is far more open and physical than the careful chess of Italian football.Balotelli, meanwhile, remains the ultimate wildcard. If he turns up in the right frame of mind, this duo could cause chaos. If he doesn't, well, you know the script. For Chievo, losing Costa is a blow to their promotional hopes in Serie D, but for the neutral, the prospect of those two old rebels lighting up a Tuesday night in Dammam is irresistible. Football, at its strangest, is never short on second acts.
