World Soccer - UK (2022-06)

BIOGRAPHY

SEP 5, 2020

Scores his first

senior international

goalina4-1win

over Croatia in the

Nations League.

SEP 19, 2020

Joins Liverpool for

£41m, a record sale

for Wolves, before

scoring on his

league debut for

the club nine days

later in a 3-1 win

against Arsenal.

NOV3,2020

Scores a hat-trick

in a 5-0 win over

Atalanta to become

the first Liverpool

player since Robbie

Fowler to score

seven goals in his

first ten games.

DEC9,2020

Suffersaleginjury

during a Champions

League match

against Midtjylland,

ruling him out

until March.

JUN 19, 2021

Scores in Portugal’s

group stage defeat

toGermanyatEuro

2020, his second of

four appearances at

the finals including

Portugal’s last-16

defeat to Belgium.

FEB 27, 2022

Scores from the

penalty spot in

Liverpool’s shootout

victory over Chelsea

in the League Cup

final, his first trophy

at the club.

later, made his top-flight debut in

a 2-2 draw with Vitoria Guimaraes.

Towards the end of that campaign the

teenager – usually deployed centrally

as a striker or number ten – opened

his league goalscoring account, netting

a brace in a 3-2 win over Academica

to our president and insisted that we sign

him. He began talks with his Gondomar

counterpart during the game itself and

they cobbled together an agreement.

Jota was a wild horse, an innate talent.”

Jota, who spent his first season at

Pacos de Ferreira in the youth team,

initially found the going tough. “He

wasusedtobeingthestaroftheshow

at Gondomar and training with less

intensity so he could play for two

different teams at the weekend,”

explained Andrade. “He discovered

a more competitive environment

with us and took a while to adapt.”

The following season (2014-15)

would prove much more fruitful,

with Pacos de Ferreira coach Paulo

Fonseca – later to take charge of

Porto, Braga, Shakhtar Donetsk and

Roma – deeming him ready for the

first team. In October 2014, he marked

his first senior appearance with a goal in

a Portuguese Cup tie against Atletico

Reguengos and some four months

Coimbra to become Pacos’s youngest-

ever goalscorer in the Portuguese

top-flight at the time (aged18

years and six months).

With the aperitif and starter

swallowed, he could now turn his

attention to the main course –

establishing himself as a genuine

Primeira Liga revelation. And what a

good job he made of it in 2015-16,

scoring12 goals and making six

assists and forever catching the

eye with his left-wing incisiveness

and brilliant breaks inside.

After his short-lived hiatus at

Atletico, a return to his home city

to wear the blue-and-white stripes of

Porto was just what the doctor ordered.

Now part of an excellent front two

alongside Andre Silva – these days

with RB Leipzig –Jota celebrated his

first start for the Dragons with a fine

hat-trick in a 4-0 domestic league

victory at Nacional and several other

highlights would follow, including a goal

in a “Classico” draw against Benfica and

his first-ever Champions League strike

in a 5-0 rout of Leicester City.

A compelling combination of

finishing power,

craft and high

energy, he could

not have wished for

abetterfirst season

at the Estadio do Dragao. Once upon

a time, Porto talent-spotters would

not have recognised him in a police

line-up. All of a sudden, people were

sitting up and taking notice. “Diogo

Jota can be the new Cristiano Ronaldo,”

declared former Pacos de Ferreira boss

Jorge Simao in the autumn of 2016.

“I’m not afraid to say it. It could

happen. He has the potential.”

WhenJota opted in the 2017

off-season to accept a loan deal

with drifting English second-tier

side Wolves, a large proportion of

Portuguese pundits thought he had

taken leave of his senses. Indeed,

even his uncle openly questioned the

decision. But Diogo felt inextricably

drawn to the project at the Black

Country club. His agentJorge Mendes

was calling the recruitment shots there,

the ambition was palpable and last

but by no means least, he would

Promotion party...

Wolves’ Portuguese

players celebrate

reaching the Premier

League in 2018

New-look Liverpool

attack...Jota has

linked up well with

Mohamed Salah

and Sadio Mane

“Diogo Jota can be the new Cristiano Ronaldo”

Jorge Simao, former Pacos de Ferreira manager