Wolves forward Diogo Jota takes inspiration from Cristiano Ronaldo and wants to build on last season's promise
A summer spent with Cristiano Ronaldo has given Diogo Jota a huge confidence boost but the Portuguese international has warned it will extremely hard for Wolverhampton Wanderers to replicate last season’s success.
Jota was part of the Portugal squad that played in the Nations League last month and impressed Ronaldo with his singing as well as his football ability.
The 22-year-old moved to Wolves from Atletico Madrid and his performances in the Premier League last season earned him a call up to his national team where he benefited from being to watch the extra work Ronaldo does in training in order to maintain his extraordinary levels of fitness at the age of 34.
Like Ronaldo, Jota started out as a winger but have moved into a more central role at Wolves, where he has thrived as they secured a shock seventh-placed finish in their first season back in the Premier League.
“He is a very nice guy, I like him,” said Jota when asked about his time with Ronaldo. “We had to do a song and he said I was the best. I was very proud of that. It was a Portuguese song. It was just the first guys there, an initiation [ritual].
“During my childhood I watched him on TV as a kind of reference for me. Now I have the opportunity to play with him. That was a good achievement for me and of course I tried to learn off him as much as possible.
"The way he works, even when the training has finished he will go to do sprint work, gym work before training, that kind of thing is what you can learn. That's a normal day for him. Putting extra things in your normal routines.
"You have to gain some confidence, you have to know a person very well to start talking about situations in football and life but he's a really nice guy. He knows he has a lot of experience in football and he likes to share it.”
There has been talk of Wolves mounting a challenge to the established top six in the Premier League next season, but Jota, as with his manager, is wary of expectations losing touch with reality.
He explained: “It was a great season but our fans are always expecting more. What we achieved last year will not be easy to achieve again and the fans need to understand that. The Premier is the best in the world and success is not easy.
"We need to think it's possible to build on it, but we know how hard it is, so we have to keep our feet on the ground.
“It has been a huge step, I think. I'm very proud to be a part of the growing up that we have done since I joined the club. We are all just looking forward to doing more and more here.
“This is a great project. From the first moment, that's why I want to stay here for as long as I can and be useful to the club.”
Wolves’ domestic ambitions are complicated by their European ones. Plenty of sides have struggled to balance playing on a Thursday night in Europe with maintaining the same standards in the league and Wolves have a small squad compared to the other top English side.
"I've never played in the Europa League,” said Jota. “I've played Champions League but I'm looking forward to helping the club reach the group stages. It's very important to do that this season. "It is good that we have some European experience in the squad. There's a lot of experienced guys that have played internationals in their countries. it's a good starting point but we have to know how hard it will be for us.”
