“It's not where we come from, but where we will go.” This sentence can be found at the entrance to the Gondomar SC Academy, followed by the picture of the boy Diogo Jota wearing the club's shirt that he played from 9 to 17 years old. Next to it was another picture of him wearing Portuguese shirt. Jota has gone so far.
Since 2022, this place has been renamed to Diogo Jota Academy. Those words were said by the striker after scoring 2 goals in a 3-0 victory over Sweden in the Nations League in 2020. He spent the whole spring in his hometown with a third-class team because of the big teams ignoring his small physique.
Despite all difficulties, he never gave up. Jota still maintained his faith, moving forward from the Gondomar Club to Pacos de Ferreira, then to the Porto, Wolves and finally Liverpool. Jota has become a symbol of hope and inspiration at home.
Right from football, one of his first coaches, Jorge Simao, announced that Jota would be the successor to Cristiano Ronaldo. This player was clearly surprised to hear that, but immediately thought: “If HKV believes in that, why not?”.
Jota is a rare case that has never been football in one of the three most prestigious institutes in the country, Benfica, Sporting and Porto as other excellent players. He understands the meaning of becoming a professional player, the meaning of becoming a good player. You are an example of that.
Success often causes many players to go up and down dogs due to the impact of fame and money. But Jota is not like that. He always lives discipline, smart, very modest. He invested wisely, knowing what he was doing, helping those who could.
Jota has gone a long way, but it is always clear about where she will go. He requires learning foreign languages so that “someday, I can play football abroad and I have to be ready.” He was young but also realized that his future could be very far away from his homeland.
In a short moment, Jota feared that his career would be at risk after being diagnosed with heart disease during medical examination before the 2014/15 season. He was not allowed to practice for nearly a month. “Don't hold the lights in front of the car,” he answered like that to anyone worried about this.
That is how Jota lives his life – every day. He quickly asserted himself as one of the rising talents of Portugal. The number of clubs interested in him increased sharply, but Jota was still modest, living in dormitories instead of in a luxurious place. He is the only member of the first team to do so.
“The boy did not play anything, he finished playing the football. He only focused on his work, did not have time for the distracting things,” Jota's coach said. Jota always knew where he was aiming for and throughout his life, he proved countless journeys more important than the starting point.
JOTA's journey to become a Portuguese hero is beautiful.
