Diogo Jota completes £45 million move from Wolves to Liverpool
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp says Diogo Jota’s ability to fill any role within his front three convinced the club to complete the £45 million transfer.
Jota completed the formalities to his Anfield move from Wolverhampton Wanderers on Saturday in a deal worth an initial £41 million, the 23-year-old saying it was ‘impossible’ to turn down the challenge of competing with Mohamed Salah, Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mane for a starting place.
“He’s a player who gives us so many options,” said Klopp.
“He’s 23-years-old, still far away from being kind of a finished article, so much potential. He has the speed, he can combine, can defend, can press. It makes it just more unpredictable and gives us real options for different systems because he can play pretty much all three positions up front in a 4-3-3, if we play with four midfielders he can play both wings. And he has some natural things which we have in our game, like this desire and the greed and the direction.
"He is part of this unbelievable Portuguese generation in the moment, where they have really a lot of obviously quite skilled players. We saw the Portuguese team last time, it’s quite impressive. So, I’m really happy to have him here. And on top of that, a really good guy and really happy to be here.”
Jota has taken the number 20 jersey previously occupied by Adam Lallana, prompting Klopp to quip: “Both run a lot, so at least the shirt is used to that! There will be a lot of sweat after the game.”
Jota, who began his career with Pacos de Ferreira in Portugal before he was signed by Atletico Madrid in 2016, will not join the squad for Sunday’s meeting with Chelsea. He registered after the deadline, but could make his debut in the Carabao Cup in midweek.
Thiago Alcantara will be part of the group travelling to London following his £20m signing on Friday.
“All of my path since I was a kid and now, to join a club like Liverpool – the world champions – is just unbelievable. I just want to get started,” Jota told Liverpool’s website.
“It is one of the best teams in the world – the best at the moment because they are world champions. When you look at the Premier League, you always see Liverpool as one of the biggest teams in the country, so it’s impossible to say no."
