‘It’s a shame’… £25m player told he wasted his career by leaving Celtic

Wed 22 November 2023 18:15, UK

The story of Jota’s emergence at Celtic really is a beautiful one. And one that will be told by this generation of Hoops supporters for a long time.

An unknown Portuguese winger comes to Scotland, tears up the Scottish Premiership, winning five trophies out of six, including a world-record eighth domestic treble and then goes on to make a £25m move that earns him the guts of £200k per week is every young lad’s dream.

But he did it. But the story quickly turned sour as Jota’s move went south and now, it seems, he could be on his way out of his new club.

And Stephen McGinn has said that the decision to swap Glasgow for the riches of the Saudi League has destroyed Jota’s career.

McGinn said [], “It’s a shame. You think that young guy, scoring in the Champions League, scoring against Rangers, he was almost turning into a God for the Celtic fans in terms of the way he embraced everything.

“Not that you want to lose the player it would have been great to see him go to a top league in Europe and really kick on.

“His career, I mean he had huge promise at Benfica. It wasn’t really happening for him at Vallodolid and he came to Celtic and really bought into everything.

“He was a huge player for Celtic. You look at Jota now and it’s so sad. Apart from the finances side of it, it’s such a waste.”

And who can argue with that? Jota was on the cusp of making the Portuguese national squad after what he was accomplishing at Celtic.

Now at Al Ittihad, that opportunity is now more than likely gone and so have his aspirations of winning any further silverware.

Unless the rumours that Celtic or Tottenham are looking to sign him are true, Jota will need to sit tight on the Al Ittihad bench and wait to see if anyone is willing to get anywhere near his current salary to take him on.

Which they won’t. Because, with all due respect to him, Jota is never a £200k per week player in his life. He struck it lucky when the Saudi’s offered him that contract and, financially, he was correct to take it.

But now? I bet Jota himself is regretting his decision. But wouldn’t it be great if he did return to Glasgow? Just imagine, ‘Jota on the wing….Jota and Palma on the wing…….’

In other news, ‘Best midfielder in Scotland’… Peter Martin says Celtic have a player who’s better than Matt O’Riley

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‘It’s a shame’… £25m player told he wasted his career by leaving Celtic