Former Celtic winger Jota has rejected the chance to make a loan move to Al Ettifaq. The Portuguese winger was subject to an offer from Steven Gerrard’s side which Al Ittihad agreed only for the 24-year-old to intervene and stop the deal.
According to journalist Ben Jacobs, Jota is engaging in talks with the Jeddah outfit as he looks to leave Saudi Arabia this month.
Jota has endured a torrid time since moving there after being ditched from the squad list for the league. There have been numerous links of him coming back to Celtic but so far, that doesn’t seem to be happening.
The attacker left Celtic for a lucrative proposal but no one will be able to or willing to match those wages in Europe. Jordan Henderson is just one of the high profile summer transfers to make the return to Europe, having signed for Ajax after agreeing to tear up his contract and forego £4m in wages.
The player probably fancies a move back to Celtic. Celtic probably could be a route back to football but it seems far fetched. Brendan Rodgers has already said that he wants the club to bring in quality and Jota would certainly be in that category. With the signing of Nicolas Kuhn, you’d imagine Celtic to be stocked in that area but if a deal could be brokered, then why not. You would imagine that external pressures in Liel Abada’s homeland would escalate his departure from the club, unfortunately, so why not then look at Jota?
In 83 appearances for Celtic, Jota has scored 28 goals and assisted 26 times. The Celtic supporters adore the Portuguese star and if there was a chance at a return then we’d happily welcome this. Ange Postecoglou and Spurs have also been linked as being interested recently and you would have to imagine that there would be a few clubs interested in bringing him in from the footballing wilderness.
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