Jota has told Celtic fans the best is yet to come after ending 18 months of injury hell. The Portuguese winger made his long-awaited return at Fir Park before being let loose for 45 minutes in Sunday's 7-1 destruction of Hearts.
Record signing aims to reach former heights
Once sold for a record-breaking £25 million, Jota is convinced he can reach those dazzling heights again as he works his way back to full fitness. The comeback king said: "Yeah, definitely. Otherwise, like if I didn't have that aim on me, I wouldn't be helpful for Celtic if I was happy with the things I did before. I'm very positive that good things will come. I'm accepting the present and how things are going and I'm trusting the process."
He added: "I'm not thinking too much forward. I just want to do the day-to-day thing and I think that's the way to go. Am I excited about what lies ahead? For myself, for sure. Because the happiest thing in life for me is to play football. I couldn't in the last year and something."
Long road back from ACL injury
Jota missed an entire season after suffering a devastating ACL injury in April last year. The 27-year-old admits being unable to help his teammates was the toughest period of his career. He said: "It's very painful because you want to be there inside and help them and you can't and you don't know when you will be again. So again, you just need to rewire inside and see the positives."
But the philosophical attacker doesn't feel he has to make up for lost time. He said: "No, I wouldn't say so. There's no lost time because in the end, I grew a lot. It had to be what it had to be and I didn't lose. I actually gained because in here, I'm way stronger nowadays. So it will help me definitely."
Emotional return to Celtic Park
Jota graced the Celtic Park turf for the first time since a 5-1 win over Kilmarnock in April 2025 - and wasted little time reminding fans what they had been missing. The dazzling winger had the crowd on their feet with his trademark silky footwork as the Hoops tore Hearts apart.
He said: "Yeah, I was really happy. It was a moment I was expecting for months and I think no better day to do it with a good result, a good performance and just in front of our fans. So it's a happy day." On his incredible reception from the support, he said: "That means what my life with Celtic was, is and will be. Like it's a reciprocal relationship. We've built on this for a long time and the love I received from them it's also because of the things that we achieved."
He added: "So on my plate, I just want to guarantee that I will keep on trying to do everything that I can to help the team and to give joy and happiness to the fans whenever they come."
No timeline for first start
While Jota is over the moon to be back playing, he's refusing to look too far ahead by putting a timeline on his first start. He said: "Well, I don't know. There's obviously metrics and a process to it and that stuff also belongs to the decision to the manager. Like we need to be clever on my situation obviously because I stopped a lot of time and we don't want to make any mistakes."
He added: "So I think we're in a comfortable situation when everyone realises what needs to be done for me to grow up and to feel better and healthier. So yeah, just trusting the process. Just enjoy football. There's no future for me now. It's just this game today and I don't know what's going to happen tomorrow. Just every minute on the pitch? Yeah, just enjoy fully because it's not granted that we'll be here tomorrow or next week. So I cannot predict too much stuff. When I predicted, everything was the way around."
