Liverpool have recently handed a fat new contract to Diogo Jota, one of the players who sums up Jurgen Klopp’s success. John Nicholson is a fan…
Who’s this then?
Diogo José Teixeira da Silva is a 25-year-old 5ft 10ins striker currently playing for Liverpool who has recently signed a long-term contract extension, taking him up to 2027 with the Reds. Born in Massarelos, a suburb of Porto in Portugal, he got his start in the youth team of Paços de Ferreira and made his first team debut in October 2014. In total he played 45 games for the club across two seasons, scoring 15 times.
This decent form saw Atletico Madrid swoop down like a golden eagle and snatch him away in a five-year contract, but loaning him to Porto for a single season to allow him to develop his game. He scored nine in 37 for the club. At the end of the season, his agent Jorge Mendes, who was busy turning Wolverhampton Wanderers into a Portuguese colony, got him a loan deal to the Black Country.
They were in the Championship at the time and Diogo filled his boots, netting 18 in 46 for the club, helping them to win the league and achieve promotion. Half way through the season, Mendes made a deal with Atletico to buy him for £14million, so he never actually played for the Madrid club.
It took him a little time to settle into his Premier League groove, scoring only 10 in 37 in his first top-flight season, however, the next season, he hit his stride and scored 16 goals. That said, I don’t think anyone had him marked down to be bought by a club the size of Liverpool, but Jurgen Klopp clearly saw that he could add to the strength in depth of his strike force and was prepared to pay handsomely for the pleasure. He slapped £41million on the table, grinned vaguely manically, put Diogo into a big sack and took him to Merseyside.
He made his debut five days later and scored his first goal at the end of September. He had the honour of scoring Liverpool’s 10,000th goal in a Champions League game against FC Midtjylland. He hit the ground running scoring seven in 10 games, scoring on each of his first four home games – the first time that had been done.
Leg knack put him out for three months and he finished the season on 13 goals in 30 appearances. He’d made a big impact in that first season, won the manager’s trust so that in 2021-22 he made 55 appearances, notching 21 goals.
He twanged a hammy in pre-season, so is out for a few weeks but there’s…
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