1March 5, 2024 will be a day that Jota Silva will certainly not forget. With an ascending and noteworthy trajectory, the Vitória SC striker stood out in such a way that he justified the unprecedented call to the national team, by Roberto Martínez, for the internship that will take place in the second half of March, in preparation for Euro’2024.
O Sport at the Minute spoke with Paulo Turra [numa entrevista que serviu para abordar a carreira de jogador e treinador da referência do futebol brasileiro, algo que poderá ler nos próximos dias] and the former coach of the Guimarães emblem did not hold back in praising the 24-year-old winger, above all, for the way he passionately lives football. Cristiano Ronaldo was made ‘to the noise’, in such a way that he could be an “on-field coach for Jota Silva”
Jota Silva assured, after the news given by Roberto Martínez, that he will “enjoy the moment” of being able to share a locker room with great stars of the Portuguese national team, also confessing that it is “a dream come true”, especially, after having gradually risen from the districts to the national team, in just five years.
“Jota Silva is super professional. With him, there is no training. All training sessions are games. It’s not just on the field. He arrives early to the locker room and to the appointments we have, at lectures. He’s always one of the first to arrive. When he is called to intervene, he intervenes and always with wisdom and intelligence. He knows how to convey what he is thinking intelligently. On the field, he’s a machine. He is a player in the image of all the great teams that need and have to win.”, confessed Paulo Turra, who worked with the Portuguese striker at Vitória SC for just over a month.
Jota Silva arrived at Vitória SC last season and has already played a total of 71 games, with 16 goals and 11 assists.© Reproduction Vitória SC
“I really enjoyed working with him. I remember an episode before the game [do Vitória] against Estoril, where I talked to him at the hotel. He told me ‘Professor, I’m feeling really good. Last year, I only played two 90-minute games. This season, I already have four. I reach the end of the game and I still want more. Playing in this system, with another one up front, I feel more comfortable. I don’t feel far from the goal. With my strength, speed and quality, I feel empowered like this’. We were in a somewhat irregular moment. He also told me: ‘With your advice, which is very different from what we were used to, we are now more used to it and we will succeed'”, he recalled the moment, precisely before being fired from the Guimarães club.
Cristiano Ronaldo as “an encouragement”
Among the many stars that Jota Silva will come across in the Portuguese team’s locker room, an unavoidable name is Cristiano Ronaldo, leading Paulo Turra to consider that the captain can be, in addition to “an encouragement”, also a “great coach on the field”.
“I don’t know Cristiano Ronaldo personally. I played against him, but from the reports that reach me, even through [Luiz Felipe] Scolari and Murtosa [Flávio Cunha Teixeira]who worked a lot with him, I think Cristiano Ronaldo will be a great incentive and a great coach on the field for Jota Silva, to refine him even further. I’m not going to make comparisons, but Cristiano Ronaldo, at the beginning of his career, was very intense and a dribbler. He lost the ball and recovered it, he had a lot of physical strength, which he still maintains today, despite not having the same intensity, due to his age”, stressed the Brazilian coach.
“Just imagine the two of them on the field… Jota Silva ‘busting’ his opponents, running here and there, reaching deep, dribbling… He’s very intense. He doesn’t stop. Imagine the defenders having Cristiano Ronaldo in front of them and Jota Silva in a corridor [risos]. He shoots with his left leg, with his right leg, crosses, dribbles… He is a professional football athlete“, he added then, amidst many smiles.
The 24-year-old striker has been one of the main faces behind Vitória SC’s success this season.© Miguel Pereira/Global Imagens
The possibility of Jota Silva making his debut for the national team at the Estádio D. Afonso Henriques is largely on the table, as the first of two preparatory games for the quinas team will take place, precisely, in Guimarães, on March 21st. , against Sweden, something that, from Paulo Turra’s perspective, “would be deserved”.
“Debut in Guimarães? I believe so, it would be deserved. He deserves it. The public of Guimarães deserves it too. The Portuguese team deserves it too. He is a different player. He is a player that the Portuguese team does not have at the moment“, he shot, before detailing more characteristics of the Portuguese winger. “They play more from foot to foot, with approach and support, in addition to the quality of passing between lines. He is more of a speed and depth player. It’s tougher one-on-one. On the defensive side, if he has to play winger and right-back, he does both at the same time.“.
Remember that Jota Silva made his senior debut with Sousense, in 2016/17, played for Paços de Ferreira’s under-19s and under-19s and ended up leaving the district, from Sousense, to Sporting de Espinho, in the Championship. of Portugal, in 2019/20. One season in Espinho was enough to reach Leixões in 2020/21, jumping to Casa Pia in the middle of the season, where he stood out as one of the great references of the II Liga, until reaching Vitória SC, last season, in the main echelon of the Portuguese football. In three years, Jota Silva went from the districts to the I League. In less than five, he made the team. A journey, in itself, commendable.
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