Roberto Martinez has confirmed Jota is ON his radar for Portugal honours.
The Celtic attacker has had a stunning year with Ange Postecoglou's side after turning his initial loan from Benfica into a permanent stay. He won the double in his first campaign in Scotland and has one again lifted the League Cup and added another Premiership medal to his haul but he could add a first Scottish Cup and complete a domestic Treble with Inverness standing in the way of the Hoops and a domestic clean sweep.
New national team coach Martinez has confirmed he has been following the Celtic star since his arrival in the job in January and has hailed his evolution, particularly in the past four months. His stats in the Champions League have also left a telling impression.
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He explained: “Absolutely, he’s on my radar. Obviously Jota is a player that is very important for the national team in terms of the qualities he has.
“He’s a player that has this natural knack of beating players in one-v-one situations. Since I arrived in January, I’ve tried to follow all the players and clearly Jota is one of them.
“His evolution has been very impressive. In the last four months especially, he is growing into a very mature role at his club. He’s always involved in the big moments, and that’s important.
“The stats that we have from him, they’re very impressive, not just in the Scottish league but in the Champions League. When you’re looking at measuring a player in that natural gift of taking players on it’s very interesting to see it in in different levels.
“It’s quite interesting that Jota actually has probably a bigger percentage in the Champions League than what he has in the Scottish Premiership, and that’s something that we always follow very closely. He’s got the potential for being in the national team, absolutely.
He added: “Obviously there’s a lot of competition for places in that role, we have players that have been playing big games for their clubs for a long time now, But it doesn’t mean that because Jota is playing in Scotland he’s not going to have the same chances.
“For us, Jota is very much a player that we appreciate what he can bring to the national team. His position is about being consistent. I think what has been very good is that he’s been very consistent with this role.
“Obviously you’re talking about that position we have players like Joao Felix, Rafael Leao - but Jota has evolved immensely.
“When I look back at his time at Benfica and he had his time in Spain, I think he’s found home.
Roberto Martinez spoke during his guest appearance at Beatson Cancer Charity’s annual Sporting Dinner in Glasgow, which raised £138,000.
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