BIOGRAPHY
bright and lively, invariably madee inroads
when running with the ball anddcould
finish with aplomb. One of his rrole
models at the time was Benficaa’s
magical Argentine number ten Pablo
Aimar, a player whom the adolescent
Lionel Messi famously adored.
Gondomar, a well-run club wwith
good facilities, not only provideed him
with the technical ability and seelf-
confidence to succeed; it was aalso
there that he acquired his stage name- DiogoJota. To mark himself oout from
all the other Diogos and Silvas at the
club, he chose to go by the “DiiogoJ”
moniker – “Jota” being the Porrtuguese
pronunciation of the letterJ.
His final tour of duty at Gonddomar
in 2012-13 was to be a fireworkkdisplay.
As the season progressed, he wwas
increasingly picked as a striker and
scored for fun for both the Undder-17s
and U19s, netting no fewer thaan 39
goals in 37 games.
“I remember a weekend that year
when Diogo played on consecuutive
days for the U19s and U17s,”
Gondomar youth coach Rubenn
Carvalho told theSAPO Desporrto
website. “On the Saturday, he sstarted
and hit a hat-trick for the U19ss, then
came off the bench the following
day to score twice for the U17ss. As it
happened, both games were against
Candal and the same keeper wwas in
the opposition goal – five goalssin
around100 minutes!
“He’d score lots of goals fromm
different positions. On the Sundday,
he was playing just behind the main
striker; on the Saturday, he wassin
midfield. It made no difference.
He’d score just the same.”
Despite the goals flying in left, right
and centre, Diogo still had feelings of
frustration. It rankled with him that he
had never been
askedtotrainwith the Gondomar first team. Another
source of dissatisfaction was his failure
to land a deal with a top Portuguese
club. Porto – whose ground was only
five miles from his home in Massarelos- Braga and Benfica all showed a
degree of interest in him, only to
eventually back off. Their reasons?
The time-honoured clichés of
rejection: too frail, too small.
“At the age of16, I was paying to
play and playing to enjoy myself,”JotaEmerging talent...
Jota in action for
Pacos de FerreiraOCT 19, 2014
Makes his senior
debut for Pacos de
Ferreira, scoring in
a 4-0 home win
against Atletico de
Reguengos in the
Portuguese Cup.MAY 17, 2015
Nets his first league
goal for Pacos with
a brace against
Academica de
Coimbra, becoming
the youngest player
to score for the club
in the top flight.NOV 17, 2015
Wins his first
Portugal Under-21
cap in a European
Championship
qualifying victory
over Israel while
still only18.MAR 14, 2016
Signs an agreement
to join Atletico
Madrid that
summer on a
five-year deal.AUG 26, 2016
ReturnstoPortugal
for a one-year loan
spell at Porto.DEC7,2016
Scores his first
Champions League
goal in Porto’s
5-0 victory over
Leicester City in
the 2016-17
group stage.JUL 25, 2017
Agrees a one-year
loan to English
Championship club
Wolverhampton
Wanderers on a
season-long loan.Timeline
“On the Saturday, he started and hit
a hat-trick for the U19s, then came
off the bench the following day to
score twice for the U17s”
Ruben Carvalho, Jota’s former youth coach