Valencia made deadline day bid for former star.
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Chelsea star Juan Mata was the subject of a late transfer deadline day bid from his former club Valencia, according to ESPN.
The Spanish international joined the Blues from Los Che in the summer of 2011, after spending four seasons at the Mestalla, where he made a name for himself after failing to make the grade at Real Madrid as a youngster.
Mata was a highly successful player for Valencia, and kept up his fine form in England with Chelsea in his first two seasons with the club, scoring 32 goals and providing 59 assists. However, he appears to have fallen out of favour with new manager Jose Mourinho, who has used him just once so far this season, and signed other attacking midfielders such as Andre Schurrle and Willian in this summer’s transfer window.
This led to the 25-year-old being linked with moves to several clubs in the final weeks of the transfer window, with Arsenal, Tottenham and Atletico Madrid all showing a strong interest in signing him.
And it has now emerged that Valencia looked to make the ambitious bid to bring him back to the club, though big-spending French giants PSG are believed to have come closest to securing his signature.