This week the footballing world lost one of its brightest stars and Wolves one of its greatest former players since the turn of the Millennium.
Although Diogo spent just three seasons at Molineux, those seasons were three of the most remarkable in recent Wolves history as with the help of the Portuguese, the team progressed from a mid-table Championship outfit into European quarter-finalists.
Author and historian Clive Corbett had the opportunity to sit down with Jota at the end of the second of his three-year stint at Molineux, to reflect on not only his journey in football which saw him end up donning the gold and black shirt with pride, but also the first of his incredible hat-trick feats.
Jota became the first Wolves player in history to score a Premier League treble in a thriller against Leicester City before following that up in the club's remarkable run to the Europa League quarter-finals. He netted not just one, but two hat-tricks in successive games as Nuno Espirito Santo's men downed Besiktas and Espanyol in front of their home crowd.
In the first of those famous Molineux nights against the team from Istanbul, Jota's trio of goals came in just 11 second-half minutes, setting a record in the process to become the quickest ever European hat-trick scored by Wolves. A record which is unlikely to ever be toppled.
As everyone connected to the club comes to terms with his passing, wolves.co.uk pays tribute to a much-loved Molineux hero.
This is the Old Gold story of Diogo Jota.
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Stan Cullis always spoke of developing Wolves players that had the right character to play for the club. In Diogo Jota they had a highly intelligent, reflective and charming young man who was also a top-class footballing talent.
Meeting him at the Sir Jack Hayward Training Ground on a sunny and warm mid-April afternoon in 2019 was a genuine pleasure as he considered his career to date and his achievement in becoming the first man in gold to score a Premier League hat-trick.
Diogo Jose Texeira da Silva, known by the nickname ‘Jota’, was born on 4th December 1996 to Isabel and Joaquim in Massarelos, Porto. Massarelos is a civil parish dominated by the University of Porto and is home to student-friendly coffee shops and wine bars.
Why “Jota”? The words Diogo Jose do not easily fit on the back of a shirt so they are shortened to Diogo J. and ‘J’ in Portuguese is pronounced “Jota” – it’s as simple as that.
At the age of seven he joined Gondomar SC, a small club who are now in the third tier of Portuguese football. It was here between 2003 and 2013 that Jota spent his formative years, and he made a quick impression as he moved through the ranks.
He takes up the story: “I was in the swimming pool and I realised that I wanted to see how it would go in football for me. The nearest local team was Gondomar. I started there at seven years of age and played there for almost ten years.
"I started playing as a left-sided midfielder in a 4-3-3 so I was more of a passing guy. I always scored goals but not a lot. At the time when I started Gondomar were in the Second Division but when I was older they went down to the Third Division.
"Although it was always my target to reach the first team that never happened there.”
Jota was soon to come to the attention of a higher ranked club and it came about as a result of a particularly impressive 2011/12 season: “When I was fifteen into sixteen years old I had a great season for Gondomar – I scored 39 goals in 37 games.”
So it was then in 2013 that he joined Pacos de Ferreira, a Primeira Liga club with a reputation for developing young players. He was under the wing of Ruben Carvalho, and remembers one time when the youngsters played Candal and Jota netted five times in 100 minutes of football. He started the first game and scored a hat-trick, and the next game grabbed a brace after coming on as substitute.
Jota recalled: “Pacos were in the first division of the under-19 competition. I think I scored one hat-trick in a game that we won 9-0. The other team was not very good but to get three goals in a game means a lot to a player.
"In my first season I was leading goal scorer in the under-19s and in my second year I started training with the first team but still playing for the youth team. With Paulo Fonseca in charge I started to get a chance in the first team and played a few games."
Jota made his professional debut at the Estadio da Mata Real on the 20th February 2015, as a replacement, in a 2-2 draw with Vitoria de Guimaraes. He became the youngest footballer to score in the Primeira Liga on 17th May 2015 in a 3-2 win over Academic de Coimbra - Wolves’ UEFA Cup opponents in 1971.
His two goals at the age of 19 saw him achieve the accolade of being the youngest footballer to have scored twice in a game in the Portuguese top flight since Cristiano Ronaldo. He scored 12 in all that season and was voted best young player.
Signing a five-year deal with the club on 30th May 2015, his overall league record with Pacos (2014 to 2016) was 14 goals in 41 appearances. He added: “I had a great season in my second year with Pacos. To score those goals for a small team was a great achievement.”
The progress that Jota was making attracted interest from a Spanish giant and he was signed by Atletico Madrid on 1st July 2016.
“I knew that a representative from Atletico was present at a game when we played against Benfica," he said. "I scored a great goal, finishing off a great move. We lost but I had a very good game and I knew they were there watching me.”
Unfortunately, he was almost immediately informed that he would not be needed by Atletico that season. “They signed me but I had just done the pre-season when the coach told me that I wasn’t a great part of his plans for that season. So together we made the decision that the best option was for me to go out on loan.
"Then Porto showed up, a big team in Portugal. I couldn’t refuse, of course. A big influence was Nuno Espirito Santo as coach. He was interested in me, so I talked with him and went. I didn’t play straight away – I was on the bench and not coming on."
He had to wait for his chance but when it came he seized the opportunity with both hands.
“In the first game that Nuno put me in the starting 11 I got a hat-trick. In the first 45 minutes against CD Nacional de Madeira [on 1st October 2016] I scored three in a 4-0 win.
"That gave me confidence as well as repaying the confidence that the coach had shown in me. They were my first goals for Porto. It was special. I scored one with my left foot, one with my right and a header – the perfect hat-trick.”
Just after his 20th birthday, Jota went on to score his first Champions League goal in a 5-0 home thrashing of Leicester City on 7th December 2016. Netting Porto’s final goal on 77 minutes, he became the youngest Portuguese player to score in the competition.
He appeared in all of Porto’s Champions League games that season, starting four and being brought on as a substitute four times, usually about 20 minutes from time. During the 2016/17 season in total, Jota scored eight times in 27 Primeira Liga outings, as well as getting one goal in eight Champions League games. But there would not be an opportunity to stay at his home town club as he explained.
“I hoped to stay but didn’t know for sure. I had a very high buy-out clause, around 22 to 25 million euros, and Porto never hire players at such a value. So they couldn’t buy me and I didn’t want to go back to Atletico if they didn’t want to play me. I wanted to go somewhere I could keep playing.”
So quite unexpectedly there came the offer to move to Wolves and renew an acquaintance with one Ruben Neves.
“I already knew Neves because in Pacos I had started to play for the national team so I first met him there and of course I played with him in Porto.”
Indeed, having performed regularly for the young national teams (under-19 – five goals in nine matches, 2014/15; under-21 – eight in 20 games, 2015 to 2018; under-23 – one in one – 2016) Jota was called up to the Portuguese senior squad for the first time in March 2019. Although he didn’t get a game in the Euro 2020 qualifiers, a full cap must surely only be a matter of time.
He said: “Ruben came to Wolves first and I could see that Wolves were going to be really strong because if they signed him that meant something, so when I had the chance to come, I took it.
"At the time I would have preferred to have stayed at Porto but I knew that Nuno was the coach at Wolves. He played a big part, of course. I thought if we are building a great team it seems a good plan to me, so I’ll go.”
The move to Wolves took place on 25th July 2017 – first on loan, then becoming permanent on 30th January 2018. Soon after arriving, he explained the difficulty that many had of him moving from a Champions League team to an English second division outfit.
“In Portugal, not many people understood my move. Not just me but Neves as well, but we are here now and the people that said negative things now understand. Only my family and a few supported me and understood my position.
“People back home didn’t understand because in Portugal you watch the Premier League but you don’t watch the Championship because it’s a lower league. So the people said that a national team and Champions League player going to an English second division club didn’t make any sense.
“Of course, they were right at the time but I know sometimes that you need to go one step back to go forwards. I think that’s what happened.”
A career-best 18 goals in all competitions helped Jota top the Molineux scoring charts in 2017/18 and to contribute significantly to securing promotion as champions. Were all doubts dispelled?
Not entirely, as Jota explained: “Sometimes when you want to achieve something, you have to take a risk, and at that time it was the best thing to do. We came here, we saw the players they bought, so we put our minds in the Championship, focused on [getting to] the Premier League and did our work.
"However, although I knew I had a great season in the Championship I hadn’t reached the national team. I had played well, but it was in a lower league. But now came the second step of the Premier League, playing in the best league in the world.
"Everything has gone well and people now know I was right.”
He made his Premier League debut in the opening game against Everton, but explained the difficulty of settling into top-flight football.
“I remember the first game very well. I was very anxious and nervous. When I was a child I had always watched the games on the TV. I always looked at it as a big thing. So when it happened it was a big thing for me.
"You don’t realise that it’s just a normal game, so it took me a long while to settle, partly because I couldn’t score straight away and that made me more anxious. It was an adaptation phase that I had to go through.”
Jota’s top-flight breakthrough came against Chelsea when he scored his first Premier League goal in the win over the Londoners in December 2018. He explained the importance of a first goal in his 14th Premier league appearance (10 starts and four from the bench).
“Chelsea was the key match for me – a key moment for me and the season. It was on the 5th December, I know because I had my (22nd) birthday the day before.”
He stressed the importance of building up a relationship with his new strike partner, Raul Jimenez: “In my career it has been important to establish a good understanding with other strikers, with Bruno Moreira at Pacos, Andre Silva at Porto, and here at first with Bonatini.
"With Jimenez there was this guy, a different player coming in and I had to understand how he plays and I had to understand how I play too. That took a while too but when we did it was good not just for us but for the team. We score goals and make assists for each other – great.”
At this point in the interview, Raul gave a cheery wave as he left Compton for the afternoon.
Jota grew in confidence from this point and netted his first Wolves top-flight hat-trick against Leicester City on 19th January 2019. This was the first for Wolves since John Richards had scored three against the same opposition in October 1977, and only the second time a Portuguese player had got a treble in the top division since Cristiano Ronaldo 11 years earlier.
“When I look back I will always remember that remarkable day. It was one of those games I watched as a kid, seeing great goals and results like 5-3, 5-4. To get a 4-3 win in the last minute and for me to score a hat-trick was an unbelievable moment that I couldn’t imagine by any chance.”
He described the match in vivid detail: “At 0-0 I saw Joao in the right-hand corner of the pitch so I got into the box because I knew he was about to cross the ball. I tried to reach the ball high with my foot and just touched the ball to put us ahead. Then Bennett got the second and we went into the break comfortable at 2-0.
"Ten minutes into the second half it was 2-2 and Leicester were really growing. Then as the ball went to Neves we had a chance to make a counter-attack. I know that if he has space and I have space the ball is going to be there – so I ran.
"I controlled the ball forward with my chest and just saw the keeper coming so I shot with my left foot. It went between his legs and bounced in – amazing.
"It was a key moment of the game because we had been struggling in the second half. We just turned the game there and it was 3-2. We were in control again but then they got a free-kick and scored – a great goal from Morgan – 3-3."
But as Jota recalled, the drama was not quite over for the day: “I had one little chance just before the end. I was fighting Morgan and Jonny Evans for the ball but miscontrolled the ball. I thought that was my last chance – I was in the box and running back I was very tired, and the game was almost over.
"Then I look back and see Neves kicking the ball to Jimenez. He controls it and runs forward. I am alone in the box, shouting ‘Put the ball here, put the ball here!’ Raul puts a good pass into the box and I hit the ball into the corner. A last minute winner 4-3, three goals for me and the stadium was bouncing – fantastic.”
In proud possession of the match ball, Jota explained: “This is typical in Portugal too - a common thing there and in almost every country in Europe I think. I kept the ball from the Madeira game but not Gondomar. They needed the ball, of course!”
Going from strength to strength for Wolves in the top-flight, Jota enjoyed every moment of the experience. Was scoring twice against Manchester United a dream?
"That’s a tough question. I thought one day I would play in the Premier League but didn’t really expect to score goals against great teams. I had a dream to play here and when you reach that you always want more and more. It doesn’t matter if it’s against United or any other team. You just want to play and give your best to the team.
“I think Wolves have everything in place to keep growing as a club. There are amazing facilities and they are growing year after year. We know our owners are very ambitious. So everything is directed at putting Wolves at the top in England and maybe in Europe. But for now I want to enjoy this moment.”
Jota eventually made the move to Liverpool in September 2020, which chairman Jeff Shi recently admitted is one of his biggest regrets of his time in charge of the club, but every Wolves fan continued to watch his development with interest and pride.
Rest in peace, Diogo, and thanks for the memories.
***
Hat-trick #1 | Wolves 4-3 Leicester City
Saturday 19th January, 2019
Premier League
Wolves: Patricio, Jonny, Bennett, Coady, Saiss, Vinagre (Doherty 73), Dendoncker, Neves, Moutinho (Gibbs-White 81), Jota, Jimenez.
Leicester: Schmeichel; Simpson (Iheanacho 83), Morgan, Maguire (Evans 48), Chilwell, Mendy, Ndidi, Pereira, Gray, Barnes (Maddison 73), Vardy.
Over four-and-a-half years after Wolves' previous hat-trick, Diogo Jota scored three times in an epic encounter which will live long in the memories of those who saw it. Those of the 31,278 crowd who left early surely regretted it.
Early on, Ruben Neves brought a flying save from Kasper Schmeichel, then Jota struck on four minutes. Leander Dendoncker robbed Demarai Gray and passed to Raul Jimenez whose pass sent Joao Moutinho away down the right. When the little midfielder centred, Jota got ahead of Danny Simpson to prod the ball past Schmeichel. Eight minutes later it was 2-0. Simpson blocked an attempted Jota cross and from Moutinho’s corner kick, Ryan Bennett rose above Harry Maguire to head home.
There was plenty of action in both goalmouths but it was still 2-0 at the break only for Leicester to turn the game on its head inside six minutes. On 47 minutes, Bennett missed a headed Leicester clearance and Jamie Vardy sent Gray racing clear down the right and he powered his way into the penalty area before beating Rui Patricio with a cross shot.
Four minutes later Jonny failed to clear after Ben Chilwell’s run down the left and Harvey Barnes, fresh from his loan spell with Albion, fired in a shot which was going wide before unfortunately being deflected into his own net by Conor Coady.
Wolves regained the lead on 64 minutes. Neves deftly pulled down a headed clearance by Bennett and, from the edge of his own penalty area, sent a perfectly-weighted pass into the path of Jota who controlled the ball on his chest as he ran on to beat Schmeichel from about 13 yards.
Leicester would not lie down and on 87 minutes made it 3-3. Jonny fouled Nampalys Mendy out on the right and from the free-kick Wes Morgan muscled his way in front of three defenders to head home.
However, another superb move saw Jota complete his treble. Neves sent the ball out to Jimenez on the right and his low cross was stroked home by Jota in the third added minute.
Hat-trick #2 | Wolves 4-0 Besiktas
Thursday 12th December, 2019
Europa League, Qualifying Group K
Wolves: Ruddy, Buur, Bennett, Coady, Kilman, Vinagre, Dendoncker (Otasawie 73), Neves (Jota 56), Moutinho (Perry 70), Neto, Cutrone.
Beskitas: Yuvakuran, Kalafat (Roco 76), Uysal, Kaya, Braga Rebocho, Ozyakup, Secgin, Lens (Diaby 81), Yalcin (Elneny 64), Boyd, Nayir.
Jota was the 'super sub' as he became the first Wolves man to score two-hat-tricks in a calendar year since Steve Bull 29 years earlier.
He was also only the second Wolves man to get a hat-trick in a European competition since Derek Dougan did so in 1971 and it was the quickest Wolves treble since Bull’s nine-minute effort against Newcastle in 1990, but still well short of Jack Hetherington’s amazing six-minute triple in 1933.
It took Jota 11 minutes to score his goals, starting in the 57th minute, just over a minute after he had replaced Ruben Neves. With a place in the last 32 already secured, Wolves rested most of their regulars, which explained Jota’s omission from the starting line-up.
The first-half gave little indication of the goals rush that would follow. Wolves did have the ball in the net but Patrick Cutrone was clearly offside as he ran clear of the defence following a surging run by Ruben Vinagre.
However, things changed with the introduction of Jota, who had scored Wolves’ goals in a 2-2 draw at Brighton & Hove Albion five days earlier. Within 76 seconds of his arrival, the sub was heading in Pedro Neto’s cutback from the right.
On 63 minutes, Jota was quickest to react when a blistering shot from Leander Dendoncker was pushed on to the post by Utku Yuvakuran. Five minutes later the Belgian midfielder got the goal he deserved when he headed home Joao Moutinho’s right-wing corner. A few minutes earlier Dendoncker had turned a left-wing Moutinho corner against the far post.
Within a minute of Dendoncker’s goal, Jota made it 4-0 to complete his hat-trick. Danish defender Oskar Buur robbed Besiktas skipper Jeremain Lens in the right-hand corner and then sent over a centre which Jota gleefully fired home.
“We played well, we scored goals, defended well and were organised,” said Nuno afterwards.
Hat-trick #3 | Wolves 4-0 Espanyol
Thursday 20th February, 2020
Europa League, Round of 32, first leg
Wolves: Patricio; Doherty, Boly, Coady, Saiss, Jonny, Moutinho, Neves, Traore (Dendoncker 61), Jota (Podence 83), Jimenez (Neto 75).
Espanyol: Prieto, Gomez (Darder 75), Gomes Pereira, Calero, Vila, Wu Lei, Sanchez, Iturraspe (Lopez 61), Vargas, Melendo (Calleri 62), Ferreyra.
Another landmark for Diogo Jota as he became the first player in eight years to hit hat-tricks in successive Europa League games, Klaas-Jan Hutelaar having done so for Schalke in 2012.
Wolves sparkled before a 30,435 crowd, Jota striking after 15 minutes, the first time Wolves had opened the scoring in 14 games. The goal came when Raul Jimenez got a slight flick-on to a right-wing cross by Joao Moutinho from Adama Traore’s short corner. Jota was able to volley home, the ball taking a slight deflection off Victor Sanchez.
Just before half-time there was a touchline scuffle between Jota and Ander Iturraspe, the former Spain midfielder seeming to make a head-butt only to escape with a yellow card.
Traore’s new found ability to finish his speedy runs with useful crosses was always a menace to the visitors but it was Ruben Neves who took the man-of-the-match honours, crowning his display with a vicious volley from well outside the penalty are after chesting down a misplaced clearance on 52 minutes.
Jota’s next two goals were not quite as dramatic as the Neves strike, but they were still extremely impressive. First, Matt Doherty exchanged passes with Leander Dendoncker before threading a pass through to Jota who, despite being forced wide of the goal, thumped a shot high into the net.
That goal was on 67 minutes and 14 minutes later Jota struck again. A pass from midfield maestro Moutinho set the striker free to cut in from the left and fire in a low shot from the 18-yard line.
Bottom of the Spanish table, Espanyol fielded a much-changed side and the nearest they came to scoring was when Wu Lei sent a couple of headers just wide and when Wolves keeper Rui Patricio lost control of the ball but managed to recover in time to thwart Facundo Ferreyra.
