He picked up millions and played with Ballon d’Or winners, World Cup heroes and Champions League legends… so why did Jota’s Saudi dream turn sour and he find himself back at Celtic?

TIME flies when you’re having fun. When you start to question your very purpose in life, all the money in the world can’t prevent the days from feeling like weeks, the weeks feeling like months.

Back in Glasgow’s East End yesterday, Jota willingly testified to the fact that the untold riches of the Saudi Pro League are not everything in life.

Gazing out of an upper floor window at Celtic Park into the dank winter evening, the Portuguese sounded like a man who’d just been liberated.

‘The last year and a half, it felt like 10 years,’ he said candidly.

Little over two years ago, the winger had been part of his country’s provisional squad for the World Cup in Qatar.

While that dream didn’t materialise, the compensation came by way of a £25million transfer to Al-Ittihad six months later.

A prodigious talent who’d emerged from Benfica’s academy before shining at Celtic, the expectation was that the winger would mincemeat out of defenders in a league with a surplus of wealth but still a deficit of quality.

What unfolded was perplexing. Despite having his compatriot Nuno Espírito Santo at the helm initially, Jota made no appreciable impact.

A league rule prohibiting more than eight foreigners per squad was designed to prevent local talents being squeezed out by ageing journeymen from Europe looking for one last pay day.

The exclusion of young, expensive imports like Jota was never the plan yet that’s how it unfolded. So, what happened?

‘I think decisions happened and life happened,’ said the 25-year-old. ‘And then I had to deal with life and overcome situations.

‘A lot of things that you cannot control happen and then you have to deal with it.

‘I don’t want to be the guy that is going to individualise someone or something. I think that’s not fair.

‘I think it was like a lot of circumstances that happened which conditioned my situation.

‘Obviously, I wanted things to be different and they weren’t, but that’s life. And the way I see myself throughout this moment is the way I come out from it, you know?

‘My last 18 months, they were much more mentally challenging than something else. I’ve discovered myself in a way that I didn’t know.

‘That’s the beautiful thing in life because we need to be able to put ourselves in circumstances that we are not comfortable.

‘So many people in the world, they don’t take risks because they feel uncertain about what’s awaiting them on the other side.

‘I’m proud of the choices I’ve made and I’m proud of the way I came out from certain circumstances. I’m always going to do that.’

He does not regret the path he chose. That is not to say that the experience did not mark him emotionally.

After being the star turn at Celtic, he quickly found himself the odd man out with just 16 league appearances made across a season. That inactivity left him feeling isolated and gradually longing for a way out.

‘I can’t speak on behalf of other players because everyone is different,’ he added.

‘But before money, and people might not believe this,but I have to say what’s true to myself, football always comes first and I’m obsessed by the game, I love the game, I breathe and I live for the game.

‘Obviously, the financial situation over there is completely different and we cannot run from it.

‘Players are taking that as something really important and I think everyone would think the same way.

‘Then it’s the way you deal with circumstances. Obviously, for me, it was really painful because I wanted to have success, I wanted to play.

‘But obviously many things happened that didn’t allow it and it’s the way it is. I need to deal with it and go on.

‘Obviously, it’s completely different when you play two, three times per week and then you stop playing.

‘But that was due to regulations, you know, the bureaucratic stuff. That was a decision made and then I had to deal with it.

‘It’s difficult when you’re training and you cannot play because you are not on the list for the championship. So, obviously, that was a tough time for me and other stuff happened in between.’

It was not without its compensations. He counted Karim Benzema and N’Golo Kante as team-mates.

‘You get to see what it is to play with Ballon d’Or, with World Cup winners, Champions League winners,’ he recalled. ‘I mean, that’s the stuff you dream about, isn’t it?

‘I enjoyed getting to know the details, the way they would move, they would do things, just drinking from their wisdom and the way they saw football.

‘They’ve been in the top of football, they have conquered everything, you know? And when you have the chance of getting to know these people, you can see another perspective.’

There was also solace to be taken in some of the opponents he encountered. The most memorable came in the colours of Al Nassr, the finest player Portugal has ever produced.

‘I played against Ronaldo which was a dream of mine,’ Jota recalled.

‘He was my biggest idol when I was younger. I think that’s something that I will always remember. That was a proud moment.

‘We did chat before the game, just casual stuff. It was cool, though.’

When the end came, though, it did not arrive a moment too soon. Rennes offered an escape route in the summer, but his six months there brought only nine league appearances, prolonging the sense that he was caught in a rut.

Jota left Celtic’s WhatsApp group the minute he left the country. Yet the bonds – both personal and emotional – remained strong.

‘I kept in touch with a lot of guys from Celtic and even sometimes it was a joke like, hey, why don’t you come back?’ he said.

Having passed Brendan Rodgers likes ships in the night back in 2023, he’s now relishing the chance of working with the manager.

The Northern Irishman has already managed to build on his success from his first spell in Glasgow. Once he’s up to speed, the winger plans to follow suit.

‘As long as there’s commitment, ambition, talent, hard work and consistency, I think things will happen naturally, just the same way it happened two years ago,’ he said.

‘We don’t put that pressure on ourselves. We put the responsibility on ourselves, which for me is two different things.’