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Diogo Jota joined Atletico Madrid in the summer 2016 transfer window, in a deal which had been agreed with Paços de Ferreira months earlier.

He didn’t play an official match with the Spanish club and was then sent out to FC Porto on loan for the following season. On his return, Jota was sent to Wolves for another campaign-long loan, and the English club announced in January 2018 that they’d made the move permanent.

The Portugal international impressed enough at Nuno Espirito Santo’s side that Liverpool snapped him up in the last window, paying around £40m to Wolves in the process.

Jota’s flying start at the Premier League champions has caught attention around Europe, with Marca looking at the situation today.

They quote the Liverpool manager saying the player has turned out better than he expected, and then state: ‘Jürgen Klopp asked for Diogo Jota as a gift in the summer market and, when he removed the packaging, put the batteries in and tried it, he was fascinated like a child when he realises, on Christmas morning, that the toy he has in his hands will accompany him for many hours of his childhood.’

Klopp’s early Christmas present is bringing some regret from an Atletico Madrid perspective, with the La Liga side never giving him a real chance. Selling Jota for €14m to Wolves, from which Atletico received €11m, is now seen as ‘a bad deal’, given his immediate success with Liverpool.

His time in Spain is termed as the ‘Atletico fiasco’, but perhaps this all had more to do with agent moves than manager Diego Simeone.

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