Jota, born in Lisbon on 30 March 1999 (age 27), came through Benfica’s system before his early senior loans gave him the sort of rougher education academy football rarely provides. A left winger by trade, he arrived at Celtic from Benfica in August 2021, initially with plenty to prove and enough talent to make that worth watching.
His Celtic spell quickly became more than a development stop. Jota’s best league season came in 2022–23, when he scored 11 goals in 33 appearances, and he won three Premiership titles, one Scottish Cup and two League Cups across his time at the club. There was also a Scottish Cup runners-up medal, which is not usually the part anyone dwells on.
In July 2023, Celtic sold him to Al-Ittihad for around £25m, a fee that made the deal impossible to ignore. His time after leaving Glasgow took him from Saudi Arabia to Rennes, before he later returned to Celtic and became more settled again after the disruption of those moves.
His current market value is around £4.5m, according to Transfermarkt. Jota’s career has already had a few sharp turns: Benfica prospect, Celtic success, lucrative exit, spells abroad, and a return to the club where his football made most sense.
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