“JORGE MENDES ALWAYS SAYS, ‘YOU SEE? I WAS RIGHT ALL ALONG...’”
Diogo Jota was a 17-year-old awaiting his first-team debut when he approached the youth co-ordinator at Pacos de Ferreira and made an unusual request. For the sake of his career, he wanted to learn a new language.
Even at such a young age, Jota understood that his path into club football was unlikely to be easy. At international level, Portugal have won Euro 2016, as well as the inaugural UEFA Nations League in 2019, but the country has long faced a problem which it is still yet to solve. At club level, academy graduates don’t always get opportunities.
A recent study found that only 4.6 per cent of all minutes played by footballers in Portugal’s top flight this season were given to homegrown talents – or players who have represented that club for at least three seasons between the ages of 15 and 21. That was the lowest figure in any of Europe’s biggest 27 leagues, compared with 12.7 per cent in England and 15.5 per cent in Spain.
Eight years ago, Jota was already aware of the issue – and he had a back-up plan. Not long after joining mid-table Pacos in 2013, he spoke to youth chief Gilberto Andrade.
“THERE WAS A PROBLEM WITH MY ELECTROCARDIOGRAM. ONLY AFTER MEDICAL CLEARANCE WAS I ABLE TO PLAY AGAIN”
“At the time, it was complicated for any young player in Portugal to get into the first team,” Jota tells FourFourTwo. “I’d always seen the possibility of playing abroad in a positive light. In order to adapt more easily, being able to communicate would be essential wherever I headed.
“I’d already studied English at school, so I went to Gil and asked if he could help me with Spanish,
