A report in the Daily Mail has revealed how Jota was the project signing that Celtic missed out on.
Over the last decade Celtic have signed a number of teenagers on low price deals hoping that they will flourish into lucrative transfers elsewhere.
Kris Ajer and Jeremie Frimpng are the most obvious successes but along the way there has also been Holmbert Fridjonsson (Holstein Kiel), Michael Duffy (Derry City), Rabui Ibrahim (Slovan Bratislava) and the recent American duo of Manny Perez and Andrew Gutman.
It is very much a hit or miss market, how a 16 or 17-year-old settles into a new country away from family and friends is a major factor beyond how their football career develops at a critical stage.
Jota looked to be certain of a golden career at Benfica but after a loan spell at Real Valladolid last season seems to have found the perfect set up arriving at Celtic.
According to former Celtic scout David Moss the winger could have joined Celtic six years ago as he recalled to the Daily Mail:
Helena Costa was a scout at Celtic for a long time and very good at her job. She coached Jota at the Benfica academy from when he was eight or nine years old and she recommended him to Celtic when he was around 16.
I was scouting for the Celtic academy when she said to me: ‘David, you need to try and sign this winger before he signs a contract with Benfica’. I went over there a few times to watch him and met him and his parents.
For whatever reason, I just don’t think Celtic were in a position back then to go and spend £200k or whatever the fee would have been to take on a teenage player with no first-team experience.
I am still in touch with Jota’s dad Pedro now. He invited me up to the hotel when he first signed on loan with Celtic. I couldn’t make it up because I was away, but next time we’re both in Glasgow we plan to meet up.’
Jota was 16 on 30 March 2015, Moss left Celtic to join Huddersfield Town on 1 June 2017 but left the then EPL side after just five months. Ronny Deila was the Celtic manager at that time but unlikely to have made decisions at that level.
CLICK HERE for Jota Transfermarkt profile.